The Social and Behavioral Response to Coronavirus
With the spread of the novel coronavirus and its attendant COVID-19 outbreak, social and behavioral science is being deployed to assuage fears, understand risk, improve public health and implement social distancing strategies. These articles and resources seek to assist in that educational effort. In addition, you can find external resources on COVID-19 such as advice and guidelines from the WHO, CDC, and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, among others.

Richard Heller: Universities Should Be Digital and Distributed
In his new book, Richard Heller proposes a model he calls the distributed university – that is, a university that distributes education online to where it is needed.

Gearing Up or Burning Out? Survey Findings Show Wellbeing is Top Concern for Higher Ed Faculty
Academic staff have been working harder than ever, and after an incredibly tough 18 months they are now prioritizing their wellbeing as a top concern. What can academic publishers learn from this?

Remote vs. In-Person University Classes: What Did We Know Before COVID?
Prior to the pandemic, Kevin O’Neill and his colleagues conducted a study of how undergraduates at a public university in Canada chose which courses to take online.

Online Teaching, Campus Design Upgrades and Institutional Changes
The times they are a-changin’ for higher education. Or so say a growing number of commentators. They see COVID-19 disruptions […]


2020 Social and Behavioral Science Conferences

Status List of 2020 Social Science Conference Cancellations
Status List of 2020 Social and Behavioral Science Conferences Amid concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus and its […]
Let us know about your meeting’s status: Send a quick email to michael.todd@sagepub.com
Applying social and behavioral insights

Pandemic Management – The Path Not Taken
New data from the WHO show that during the pandemic’s first two years, Sweden had half the excess death rate of the UK, Germany or Spain – and a quarter of the excess death rate of many countries in Eastern Europe.
Dispatches from Social and Behavioral Scientists on COVID
Has the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impacted how social and behavioral scientists view and conduct research? If so, how exactly? And […]

SSRC, NSF Team Up To Examine Impact of Public Health Guidance
In a new initiative with an initial $20 million budget, the U.S. National Science Foundation is partnering with the Social Science Research Council to identify and support science research into public health guidance and its impact.

Comparing COVID Deaths and Political Persuasion in the US
The Pew Research Center writes that “as the relationship between population density and coronavirus death rates has changed over the course of the pandemic, so too has the relationship between counties’ voting patterns and their death rates from COVID-19.”
Coronavirus Impacts

Saving Private Business – The UK Bounce Back Loan
Authors Marc Cowling, Paul Nightingale, Nick Wilson, and Marek Kacer find “everything researched and written about COVID-19 in whatever context […]

What Has COVID Done to Our Trust?
A recent paper in The Lancet reports that there are significant associations between both trust interpersonally and, in the government, and standardized COVID-19 infection rates.

Weighing the Benefits from New Data-Sharing Rules from the National Institutes of Health
Starting on Jan. 25, 2023, many of the 2,500 institutions and 300,000 researchers that the U.S. National Institutes of Health supports will need to provide a formal, detailed plan for publicly sharing the data generated by their research.

Pandemic Shows We Must Recraft Editorial Ethics in Academic Publishing
Researchers need to observe ethical standards during a pandemic, say Ben Kasstan, Rishita Nandagiri and Siyane Aniley, and journals should hold them to these standards.


Coronavirus resources
WHO Coronavirus Information: A fairly comprehensive source for coronavirus related resources: FAQs, travel advice, situation reports, research information.
CDC Coronavirus Information: Another fairly comprehensive source for coronavirus related resources for travelers, business owners and workers, health-care professionals, researchers, schools, and anyone else. This resource also provides information on symptoms, testing, at-risk groups, and the disease at large.
This CDC page offers highlight facts on the coronavirus. Make sure you know the symptoms and preventative measures you can take to stop the spread of the virus.
Wearing a Mask: Myths and Facts
The University of Maryland has an article on mask safety and effectiveness.
Federation of American Scientists Coronavirus Project: This new initiative of FAS aims to debunk misinformation circulating the web on matters of public health and safety, as well as provide clear and sourced information for policymakers.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center: A website focused on resources addressing the global public health, infectious disease, and emergency preparedness aspects of coronavirus, and includes the renowned COVID-19 spread dashboard.
Coronavirus – The Big Data Response: The SAGE Ocean initiative gathered a collection of resources related to the analysis of COVID-19 data. These include mapping the spread of the virus, GitHub data repositories, some of the datasets currently being used as well as how people are using R and Python to help understand the virus.
Coronavirus Resources for Researchers
COVID-19 Global Research Registry for Public Health and Social Sciences: This is a worldwide registry for the identification of COVID-19-related research and risk reduction efforts. It has been launched by the National Science Foundation-supported CONVERGE facility and the Social Science Extreme Events Research Network in response to a call from the Working Group for Disaster Research at the National Institutes of Health. Registered projects should be focused on topics related to the social and behavioral consequences, policy responses, educational and economic impacts, and public health implications of COVID-19. The form takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. The form is currently available in English, French, and Spanish and will soon be translated to Mandarin Chinese.
COVID-19 International Social Science Research Tracker: A Github-based aggregator begun by Cornell’s Nathan Matias and Facebook’s Alex Leavitt. This resource is designed to help track new social research about COVID 19, including published findings, pre-prints, projects underway, and projects that are at least at a solid proposal stage.
National Institute of Health FAQ on Proposals and Research Awards: This Guide Notice intends to address general questions associated with proposal submission and award management that may arise in relation to COVID-19. NIH is providing this information as a service to applicant and recipient communities in the hopes it will address high-level questions that may arise in this regard.
Free Medical, Social, and Behavioral Science Articles from SAGE Publishing on Coronavirus and COVID-19: This collection includes the latest medical research from SAGE related to the virus as well as top social and behavioral research to help individuals, communities, and leaders make the best decisions on dealing with the outbreak and its consequences.
Coronavirus Resources for Educators and Students
For authors and early career researchers who are preparing articles for publication in remote and challenging circumstances, SAGE Publishing has a range of resources on its Journals Author Gateway to support you, including: How To Get Published free online courses, webinars, videos, Guides on how to increase the readership of your published research, information on the SAGE Journals Blog, and Advance: A SAGE preprints community
NAFSA Association of International Educators Coronavirus Critical Resources: NAFSA has assembled resource links to help educators navigate issues arising from the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
U.S. Department of Education Coronavirus Information: A great source of information about the effort of schools amidst this COVID-19 pandemic. Provides information for schools looking to navigate the current ecosystem.
Resources for Visualizing and Mapping COVID-19 Data
An interactive data dashboard from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University tracks global COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries in real time. All the data is stored on GitHub.
Tableau has launched a free resource page featuring data visualizations about the spread of COVID-19 and the public health response.
Our World In Data has aggregated research on COVID-19 helping to make the data understandable and accessible for readers. Graphics illustrate confirmed cases, testing, and containment strategies.
This epidemic calculator contextualizes COVID-19 numbers and forecasts described in the media, and can help predict the impact of intervention.