A global health crisis with divided research traditions? A comparative review of Brazilian and international research in communication on the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial international scientific research from high-income countries, with fewer contributions from low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Utilizing a field theory approach, we contend that these output variations may underscore challenges faced by LMIC researchers in obtaining international academic recognition. Through a systematic review of Brazilian and international Communication research during the pandemic, we identify differences in research interests, constructs, methods, and use of academic references. While international literature prioritizes quantitative surveys, Brazil emphasizes qualitative content analysis. We also observe dissimilarities in covered topics and a limited number of shared references. Research traditions and distinct resource allocations pose additional barriers to international publishing, hampering academic exchanges between these communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Comparative review
• systematic review
• COVID-19
• Brazil
• field theory
• international journals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While studies have used the term “Global South,” this term has been criticized for being too broad and not considering differences across countries (Haug et al., 2021). Because such differences, particularly in available resources, potentially affect research, we use the term low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in this paper.

2 We have also requested access to authors when we could locate a ResearchGate or other platforms referring to the article, however this yielded no responses.

3 Available at: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/E8ZJ4

Additional information

Funding

Felipe Barreto de Souza Martins was supported in this research by the Thuringer Ministerium fur Wirtschaft Wissenschaft und Digitale Gesellschaft thru the Thüringer Graduiertenförderung under [grant number 0060215-7150000163]. Jingyuan Yu was supported by the DECIPHER project of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under the [grant number 458225198].