Evidence-based medicine in ophthalmic journals during covid-19 pandemic

Background: COVID-19 has erupted into our lives and forced rapid changes in all fields of medicine, causing a rush for publications that inevitably caused a shift away from the paradigm of evidence-based medicine (EBM). The objective of the present report is to assess and quantify this process. Methods: We compared the levels of EBM of the publications in the ophthalmic literature on COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic and compared it to those of articles published the prior year during April 2019 for the three highest ranking journals in the field of comprehensive ophthalmology. Results: COVID-19 publications ranked significantly lower (p<0.001). Time between sub-mission and acceptance was significantly shorter for the COVID-19 publications (p<0.001), and significantly more publications were accepted without revisions (P<0.001). Conclusion: Though a shift away from EBM may be unavoidable in the early stages of a pandemic, we suggest that for the benefit of reliable information and informed decision-making, it is time to go back to EBM.