Elsevier has announced the launch of a global collaboration aiming to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on confidence in scientific research.
The initiative will examine how researchers have experienced the increased public attention on science during the pandemic, and the impact this has had on the academic research community, with the initiative also looking at changes in the ways researchers communicate their findings.
A ‘landmark’ global survey will be the main focus of the collaboration, conducted by Economist Impact, of 3,000 researchers across Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East, Africa and Asia.
With a publishing date set for autumn 2022, the free report will be used to create a set of actionable commitments and recommendations that will ‘support researchers in their efforts to advance knowledge that will benefit society’.
As part of the initiative, Elsevier will partner with Sense about Science to bring together ‘world-renowned’ experts to inform the collaboration via a Global Advisory Board tasked with shaping primary research, and a Global Expert Panel that will drive the co-creation of actionable insights to benefit the research community.
In addition to its partnering with Sense about Science, Elsevier is also working with science and research organisations in six regions: Chinese Association for Science of Science and Science & Technology Policy, Körber Stiftung, Japanese Association for the Advancement of Science, Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen – Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, and Research!America.
Commenting on the initiative, Anne Kitson, senior vice president and managing director of Cell Press and The Lancet, Elsevier said: “…Science is making extraordinary advances at an accelerated pace, but amid this change lie new challenges for researchers. We’re privileged to partner with and bring together some of the world’s leading experts to consider these challenges, and work towards recommendations that we hope will help researchers to navigate this fast-evolving scientific landscape.”
Jonathan Birdwell, regional head of Policy Research and Insights for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Economist Impact, said: “…The pandemic turned previously unknown researchers into household names, with politicians, business leaders and the general public more invested than ever before in the outcomes of the scientific process. But the pandemic also appears to have accelerated a number of longer-term trends affecting the research community, including the speed and volume of research published and the role of social media.”