Inequalities in COVID-19 inequalities research: Who had the capacity to respond?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been testing countries' capacities and scientific preparedness to actively respond and collaborate on a common global threat. It has also heightened awareness of the urgent need to empirically describe and analyze health inequalities to be able to act effectively. In turn, this raises several important questions that need answering: What is known about the rapidly emerging COVID-19 inequalities research field? Which countries and world regions have been able to rapidly produce research on this topic? What research patterns and trends have emerged, and how to these compared to the (pre-COVID-19) global health inequalities research field? Which countries have been scientifically collaborating on this important topic? Where are the scientific knowledge gaps, and indirectly where might research capacities need to be strengthened? In order to answer these queries, we analyzed the global scientific production (2020-2021) on COVID-19 associated inequalities by conducting bibliometric and network analyses using the Scopus database. Specifically, we analyzed the volume of scientific production per country (via author affiliations), its distribution by country income groups and world regions, as well as the inter-country collaborations within this production. Our results indicate that the COVID-19 inequalities research field has been highly collaborative; however, a number of significant inequitable research practices exist. When compared to the (pre-COVID-19) global health inequalities research field, similar inequalities were identified, however, several new dynamics and partnerships have also emerged that warrant further in-depth exploration. To ensure preparedness for future crises, and effective strategies to tackle growing social inequalities in health, investment in global health inequalities research capacities must be a priority for all.

Fig 1

Geographical distribution (A) and inequalities in COVID-19 inequalities scientific production and co-author collaborations (B). (A) Choropleth map of the world showing the different degrees of collaborations between countries in this research field. The color of the country reflects the number of articles in collaboration with other countries (increasing from red to blue). The color of the connections encodes the number of articles in which the two linked countries appear (increasing from yellow to red; with the green connection indicating the ´highest producing´ research cluster). (B) Country Research Productivity (CRP) and Correspondence author rates per million people by country income group and world region.

Fig 2. Gini coefficient between international collaborators, as a function of the number of collaborators per country.

Size of the symbols reflects the number of articles for each country in collaboration with another country. Color indicates the country income group. Only 30 countries with the highest Gini, and the highest number of collaborations are shown.

Fig 3. Clusters of co-authorship networks of COVID-19 inequalities research (2020–2021).

The network visualisation map depicts the publications co-authored by each country of affiliation relating to the individual countries link strength network (i.e. inter-country co-author relation) within these clusters. Each color represents a distinct research cluster, and the size of each rectangle represents the countries’ total scientific production on COVID-19 inequalities.