Purpose

The coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic mobilized the international scientific community in the search for its cure and containment. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the rapid response to the COVID-19 of the scientific community in selected Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico) in the period running from January to August 2020. Rapid response is reconceptualized from its original meaning in health policy, as the swift mobilization of existing scientific resources to address an emergency (DeVita et al., 2017).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper explores the rapid response of the Argentinian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian and Mexican scientific communities from the perspective of bibliometric and altmetric data. The authors will examine scientific publications indexed to the Web of Science (WoS) dealing with COVID-19. Besides patterns of scientific output and impact as measured by citations, the authors complement the analysis with altmetric analysis. The aim is to verify whether or not factors that explain the extent of scientific impact can also be identified with respect to the wider impact made evident by altmetric indicators (Haustein, 2016).

Findings

The authors identified a somewhat limited response of the Argentinian, Brazilian, Chilean, Colombian and Mexican scientific communities to COVID-19 in terms of quantity of publications. The authorship of publications in the topic of COVID-19 was associated with authorship of publications dealing with locally relevant diseases. Some factors appear to contribute to visibility of scientific outputs. Papers that involved wider international collaborations and authors with previous publications in arboviruses were associated with higher levels of citations. Previous work on arbovirus was also associated with higher altmetric attention. The country of origin of authors exerted a positive effect on altmetric indicators.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation in the analysis is that, due to the nature of the data source (WoS), the authors were unable to verify the career status and the productivity of the authors in the sample. Nonetheless, the results appear to suggest that there is some overlapping in authors conducting research in Arboviruses and COVID-19. Career status and productivity should be the focus of future research.

Practical implications

In the context of countries with limited scientific resources, like the ones investigated in our Latin American sample, previous efforts in the study of locally relevant diseases may contribute to the creation of an expertise that can be applied when a health emergency brings about a novel disease.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper rests on the fact that the authors identified that previous work on arbovirus contributed to the scientific visibility of publications on COVID-19.

中文翻译：

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拉丁美洲对 COVID-19 快速反应的性质：对阿根廷、巴西、智利、哥伦比亚和墨西哥的考察

目的

冠状病毒 19 (COVID-19) 大流行动员了国际科学界寻求治愈和遏制。本文的目的是研究在 2020 年 1 月至 8 月期间选定的拉丁美洲国家（阿根廷、巴西、智利、哥伦比亚和墨西哥）科学界对 COVID-19 的快速反应的性质。响应从其在卫生政策中的原始含义重新概念化，即快速动员现有科学资源来应对紧急情况（DeVita等，2017）。

设计/方法/方法

该论文从文献计量和替代计量数据的角度探讨了阿根廷、巴西、智利、哥伦比亚和墨西哥科学界的快速反应。作者将检查编入科学网络 (WoS) 索引的有关 COVID-19 的科学出版物。除了通过引用衡量的科学产出和影响模式之外，作者还用替代度量分析补充了分析。目的是验证是否也可以根据替代度量指标显示的更广泛影响来确定解释科学影响程度的因素（Haustein，2016）。

调查结果

作者发现阿根廷、巴西、智利、哥伦比亚和墨西哥科学界在出版物数量方面对 COVID-19 的反应有些有限。COVID-19 主题出版物的作者身份与处理当地相关疾病的出版物的作者身份相关。某些因素似乎有助于提高科学成果的可见度。涉及更广泛国际合作的论文和作者之前在虫媒病毒方面的出版物与较高的​​引用水平相关。以前关于虫媒病毒的工作也与更高的altmetric注意力有关。作者的原籍国对替代指标产生了积极影响。

研究限制/影响

分析中的一个限制是，由于数据源 (WoS) 的性质，作者无法验证样本中作者的职业状况和生产力。尽管如此，结果似乎表明，在虫媒病毒和 COVID-19 方面进行研究的作者存在一些重叠。职业状况和生产力应该是未来研究的重点。

实际意义

在科学资源有限的国家，例如我们在拉丁美洲样本中调查的国家，先前在当地相关疾病研究方面的努力可能有助于创造可在突发卫生事件导致新疾病时应用的专业知识.

原创性/价值

该论文的原创性基于这样一个事实，即作者发现先前关于虫媒病毒的工作有助于提高 COVID-19 出版物的科学知名度。