Earth and Space Science Collaboration During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of AGU Journal and Fall Meeting Author Teams

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way many Earth and space scientists work. Onsite research is curtailed while instructors adjust to remote teaching and parents add homeschooling and childcare to their schedules. As we saw in a preliminary analysis of AGU journal submissions, there has been an increase in submissions from both male and female corresponding authors (and no significant changes in rates from women) and an increase in submissions from around the world to AGU’s journals (as of June 2020). This may be due to the relatively low cognitive load of uploading files and submitting metadata compared to conducting research and analyzing data. However, how will submission data look by the end of 2020, and how might author teams be affected by the pandemic? This analysis will look at author teams of AGU journal and Fall Meeting abstracts with a focus on team size, author country, and author gender, and investigate how this might vary by research area using AGU index terms. Author team analysis of the Fall Meeting abstracts will also help to understand how collaborations are affected by shifting such a large physical conference to a virtual one.