Dt is obvious that the pandemic has been an extremely labor-intensive time for all scientists even remotely researching anything relevant to the epidemic. We all witnessed the unbelievable increase in scientific output, which was the decisive basis for being able to face the crisis decisively. But what did all the other scientists actually do, those without any connection to viruses or those who are endangered by viruses? The astronomers for example. After all, in view of the telescopes scattered around the world, they are considered very keen to travel and were forced by the pandemic to completely change their life, which involves many miles of air travel. Has that slowed down the exploration of the cosmos?
The answer to this question, now published in “Nature Astronomy”, is a resounding “no”. The number of publications has not decreased. On the contrary: there was also an increase in production in astronomy during the pandemic – by 13 percent worldwide. The fact that the number of publications is increasing every year is a trend that already existed before the pandemic. In almost all of the countries examined, however, there has also been an increase in individual productivity since 2020. Apparently, the researchers still had enough data to be able to efficiently use the time gained through flexible working conditions and the lack of travel for new research.
All researchers? no The study by astronomers Vanessa Böhm from the University of California and Jia Liu from the University of Tokyo examines the effect of the pandemic on the number of publications, also differentiated by gender and career level. Accordingly, the increase in productivity mainly benefited men. In none of the 141 countries considered were women astronomers able to keep up with their male colleagues – although before the pandemic in some countries they had published even more individually. The crisis also had a negative impact on the activity of young scientists – exceptions were only noted in Japan, Taiwan and China. In other words, in astronomy, as elsewhere, the pandemic helped reinforce existing inequalities and barriers. After all, the personal experience of this problem gave reason for the study. Because the young mother Jia Liu had been slowed down in her productivity by the pandemic herself – and wanted to know whether other colleagues had had a similar experience.