Research in the post-pandemic era….

It gives me immense pleasure to introduce our new journal to all the scientific fraternities of the world. We hope and we will provide valuable drops of quality research to the scientific ocean of knowledge. We are extremely grateful to all souls who painstakingly helped us to bring out our first issue.

When everything went well for a long time in the research field, COVID-19 pandemic totally changed the perspective of research in all fields, especially in medicine. It is the need of the hour to discuss the changes in research in this post-pandemic era.

We all know the kind of research we are practicing now for decades has evolved in a structured manner. The structure of the research has slowly improved with the help of technologies such as statistical tools and software which led to the invention of randomized controlled trials, systemic reviews, meta-analysis, etc. The main disadvantage of structured research is the process itself consumes a lot of time and energy. The best examples are the various phase-based clinical trials and approvals from various regulatory agencies. In this modern era, to acquire the research grants, it became mandatory that the structure is as per requirements rather than the importance of the proposals. In most scenarios, the methodology overtook and engulfed the real purpose of the research.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, the structured research took a massive blow and went topsy-turvy. Suddenly, the research requirements the global scientific community demanded have escalated in the need for cure and prevention. Most importantly, the research transcended country borders and world researchers unified to fight the cause. The best example is the Indian research contribution in the making of the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine.

This move shattered the age-old practice of drugs and technologies reaching only the developed countries and not reaching the majority of developing and under developed countries of the world. One-way we can say nature equalized human disparities through this pandemic.

Initially, in the beginning of pandemic, there were no changes in research methods. However, later, due to urgent need for results, the regulatory authorities like WHO eased the methods of research which eventually yielded quicker solutions which greatly helped in containing the COVID-19 spread. In fact, the old method of short clinical research carried out in smaller laboratories with not much structuring and analysis gave tremendous insight into the nature of the COVID-19 virus affecting the host cells, like impairing α interferon release and initiating cytokine storms at the cellular level.

Furthermore, the quantity of research outnumbered quality during this pandemic era which provided enormous data about infection and, in turn, this wealthy information has greatly helped the scientific community to decipher the nature of infection.

Hence, in our opinion, though the research methods have evolved using technologies over the decades and extreme vigilance from the regulatory agencies are the gold standards of standard research, the pandemic has taught us the relevance of traditional clinical research with less structuring and controls to counteract future threats. Hence, we request the global research community not to discourage unstructured clinical research which may give valuable results.