The COVID-19 pandemic has been the greatest global public health crisis in a century. Scientific research and its effective communication have been at the centre of the worldwide response to the emergency.

This report analyses how the scholarly communication system – involving the production, evaluation, and dissemination of research outputs – has responded to this crisis, focusing on the period until mid-2021. It evaluates ways in which the scholarly communication system, including its quality control mechanisms, has operated during the pandemic. It also examines how the global crisis has enabled innovations in scholarly communication, and the effects they have had on the system, or may have in future.