Estimating the productivity cost of administrative duties and work-related engagements from submission trends during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

TL;DR

The paper suggests that the rise in journal submissions during the pandemic reflects a backlog caused by reduced work-related activities, estimating their impact on research productivity.

Contribution

The novelty lies in using submission trends to estimate the productivity cost of administrative duties and work-related engagements.

Findings

An increase in journal submissions during lockdowns was observed across multiple fields.

The increase is attributed to a backlog of unpublished work rather than increased research activity.

Reduction in work-related engagements is estimated to have impacted research output.

Abstract

During the initial months of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, mBio experienced a large increase in the number of submissions, a phenomenon that was also observed for journals of different fields. Since most research laboratories were closed, this increase cannot reflect increased research activity. In this editorial, we propose that the increase in submissions reflected the release of a backlog of unpublished work following a reduction in work-related engagements including scientific travel, which in turn provides an estimate of the productivity costs of such activities on research output.