Particle physics facing a pandemic

Abstract

Background: Ordinary life as we knew it changed in March of 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. While springtime in general was well awaited and regarded as a synonym for rejuvenation, March of 2020 on the other hand brought lock-down, curfews, home working and digital education to the lives of many. The particle physics community was not an exception: research institutes and universities introduced remote working and digital lecturing and all workshops, conferences and summer schools were cancelled, got postponed or took place online. Methods: Using publicly available data from the INSPIRE and arXiv databases we investigate the effects of this dramatic change of life to the publishing trends of the high-energy physics community with an emphasis on particle phenomenology, theory and CERN’s two major LHC experiments, ATLAS and CMS. To get insights, we gather information about publishing trends in the last 20 years, ending by December 2021, and analyse it in detail. Results: Our analysis revealed that the publishing trend in particle physics was only been affected in a minor way. Conclusions: Publication data show that difficult times were successfully overcome and that the community even increased scientific output.