How did The COVID-19 Pandemic Affect Urology Publications?

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effect of the pandemic on the publications related to urology. Methods: All publications about urology in the PubMed database between 2016 and 2020 were reviewed. The number and the rate of change in the number of these publications issued between the years 2016- 2019, and in 2020 were recorded. The publications about urology and COVID-19 in the pandemic period were identified, their publication rates among them were examined. Results: There was a reduction of 24.33% in the rates of publications on urology during the pandemic period compared to the time interval between the years 2016, and 2019, but without any statistically significant difference (p=0.122). A statistically significant difference was found only in the number of publications related to urological surgery between 2016- 2019 and 2020 (p=0.045), but without any statistically significant difference in the number of publications on other subdiciplines of urology (p>0.05). The ratio of publications on COVID- 19 and urology to all publications on COVID-19 was 1.33 percent. The ratio of publications on COVID-19 and urology to all publications on urology in 2020 was found to be 1.98 percent. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic did not make a significant difference in the number of publications on urology. Although disasters such as pandemics may not affect the number of publications, they can change the types of publications to which scientists are directed to.