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From manuscript to medicine – the publishing industry’s response to COVID-19

In early 2020, a mystery virus began spreading rapidly across continents, raising concerns for the World Health Organization. By March, the world was experiencing a global pandemic that posed an urgent threat to global health. The previously unidentified coronavirus demanded swift action. Healthcare workers, and academic and industry researchers and engineers from a wide range of fields came together to confront the outbreak, relying on their most trusted tool—research knowledge.

The pandemic triggered an unprecedented surge in academic publications. Urgent research was needed to understand the disease, limit its impact on global health, and develop a vaccine. Academic publishers responded swiftly and effectively by accelerating knowledge production, maintaining scientific integrity, and fostering collaboration across disciplines and countries.

The result? The rapid mobilization of research and data supported the development of a vaccine within a year.

Additionally, research publications played a crucial role in tracking vaccine uptake and behavioural trends, ultimately contributing to the WHO’s decision to declare COVID-19 no longer a public health emergency in May 2023.

• Prioritizing Knowledge Production: Academic publishers accelerated peer review and publication decisions on COVID-19 research, reducing publication times from months to mere weeks. This ensured that critical findings were quickly accessible to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
• Curating Research Resources: By March 2020, over 30 leading publishers committed to making COVID-19 research and supporting data immediately accessible in PubMed Central (PMC), other public repositories, and dedicated resource hubs.
• Facilitating Knowledge Sharing: Publishers enabled greater collaboration by automatically sharing relevant manuscripts and findings with WHO upon submission, ensuring rapid access to the latest research during the crisis.
• Supporting Communities: The pandemic disrupted education worldwide. Academic publishers stepped in to ensure students had access to core textbooks and courseware online while schools and campuses remained closed.
• This included providing temporary free access and offering guidance on remote learning. For example, Wiley introduced virtual office hours to support educators transitioning to online instruction.