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05 May 2010PLoS Medicine
Literature on disease outbreaks published with delay
The majority of epidemiological articles on SARS were submitted to scientific journals after the epidemic had ended. Only 7% were being published during the epidemic, research published in PLoS Medicine reveals. These findings show that although the academic response to the SARS epidemic was rapid, most articles on the epidemiology of SARS were published after the epidemic was over.
Weijia Xing and colleagues examined the publication of epidemiological literature concerning the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks in Hong Kong and Toronto. Outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, especially those of a global nature, require rapid epidemiological analysis and dissemination of information for which journals are just one channel. The paper suggests that journals alone are not sufficient.
The authors conclude by suggesting that to minimize future delays in the publication of epidemiological research on emerging infectious diseases, epidemiologists could adopt common, predefined protocols and ready-to-use instruments, which would improve timeliness and ensure comparability across studies. Journals, in turn, could improve their fast-track procedures.
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Xing W, Hejblum G, Leung GM, Valleron A-J (2010) Anatomy of the Epidemiological Literature on the 2003 SARS Outbreaks in Hong Kong and Toronto: A Time-Stratified Review. PLoS Med 7(5): e1000272. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000272
