A new article on COVID-19 deals with the effect of the well-known distortions of the current scientific system. The title is The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak highlights serious deficiencies in scholarly communication by Larivière, Shu, and Sugimoto (in LSE Impact Blog, March 5th, 2020).

Highlighted in the article:

"Even if all articles on the topic of coronaviruses were made available, this would still be insufficient to address the crisis, given the inherently interdisciplinary nature of biomedical research. The knowledge base of science is simply much broader than a single topic. Viewing the literature through the narrow lens of coronavirus articles directly relevant to COVID-19 alone blinds the research effort to other work that could prove crucial. Cures for diseases often come from novel combinations and insights from several areas of research. If the goal of opening research is to advance science and serve society, all research should be open, not just a portion of it. The scientific response to COVID-19 has demonstrated some of the benefits of opening the scientific system: including the torrent of papers being immediately shared on preprint servers, the open collaboration and discussion of scientists using social media platforms, and the accelerated modelling of the viral genomes. However, this will have been in vain if the scientific system does not change. It is essential to recognise what is made clear in this moment of crisis: a robust scientific system and an informed citizenry requires immediate and public access to research".

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