EDITORIALE   Free access

La Rivista Italiana della Medicina di Laboratorio 2020 Giugno;16(2):79-82

DOI: 10.23736/S1825-859X.20.00060-2

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

How COVID-19 is changing research, publishing, and guidelines

Piero CAPPELLETTI ¹ ✉, Nicola BIZZARO ², Romolo M. DORIZZI ³

¹ SIPMeL, Castelfranco Veneto, Treviso, Italia; ² Laboratorio di Patologia Clinica, Ospedale Sant’Antonio, Tolmezzo, Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Integrata di Udine, Udine, Italia; ³ UOC Patologia Clinica, Laboratorio Unico della Romagna, Pievesestina di Cesena, Forlì-Cesena, Italia

COVID-19 is determining a “new normal” in research, guidelines, and publishing. Traditional methods for research and systematic reviews are overcome by “living systematic reviews” and, during the pandemic, institutional boards release interim guidelines, standards of care, and authorizations for emergency use without the usual time and control. Publishing is deeply modified by open access journals, diffusion of preprints, accelerated peer-review processes such as Transparent Peer Review, Open Peer Review, Post-Publication Peer Review. These initiatives, taken together, are determining an explosion of open information. Nevertheless, a note of caution is needed. The peer-review process has to allow a reliability of information, particularly necessary in pandemic when it is immediately transferred in the clinical practice, which the accelerated processes or the skip out of them cannot guarantee. The public debate on COVID-19 is the proof of this.

KEY WORDS: COVID-19; Publishing; Open access; Preprints; Accelerated peer-review