In July 2020, Brazil has the world’s second highest Covid-19 death toll. The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading fast in America. Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed, it took 114 days in Brazil (February 26-June 19) and 98 days in the USA (January 21-April 29) for the number of cases to reach more than 1,000,000. Parallel to the rapid growth of COVID-19 cases, there has been a progression in the number of scientific publications. Until June 2020, more than 25,800 papers about COVID-19 were published in PubMed (17,800 open access – 69%). This volume of scientific publications is unprecedent. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), for example, received more than 11,000 submissions from January 1 to June 1, 2020, compared with approximately 4,000 submissions during the same period in 2019. The International Journal of Cardiovascular Sciences is facing a similar situation with more than doubled manuscripts submitted. Our aim is to discuss the importance of Open Science during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of cardiology journals in this special moment.

COVID-19 is a new disease and many of its aspects are still obscure. What is known about SARS-CoV-2 transmission, incubation, and environmental stability? What are the risk factors for the disease? What is the best evidence-based therapy? What is the real importance of asymptomatic and presymptomatic virus shedding in SARS- CoV-2 transmission? How long neutralizing antibodies persist following infection, and do they confer immunity to reinfection? These and many other key questions are still unanswered. There is a great need for fast and efficient publication of information, but at the same time all efforts must be made to assure quality, and avoid biases and limitations.

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