  The massive shock of the COVID-19 pandemic is already showing its negative
effects on economies around the world, unprecedented in recent history.
COVID-19 infections and containment measures have caused a general slowdown in
research and new knowledge production. Because of the link between R&D spending
and economic growth, it is to be expected then that a slowdown in research
activities will slow in turn the global recovery from the pandemic. Many recent
studies also claim an uneven impact on scientific production across gender. In
this paper, we investigate the phenomenon across countries, analysing preprint
depositions. Differently from other works, that compare the number of preprint
depositions before and after the pandemic outbreak, we analyse the depositions
trends across geographical areas, and contrast after-pandemic depositions with
expected ones. Differently from common belief and initial evidence, in few
countries female scientists increased their scientific output while males
plunged.
