  We analyze the reaction of academic communities to a particular urgent topic
which abruptly arises as a scientific problem. To this end, we have chosen the
disaster that occurred in 1986 in Chornobyl (Chernobyl), Ukraine, considered as
one of the most devastating nuclear power plant accidents in history. The
academic response is evaluated using scientific-publication data concerning the
disaster using the Scopus database to present the picture on an international
scale and the bibliographic database "Ukrainika naukova" to consider it on a
national level. We measured distributions of papers in different scientific
fields, their growth rates and properties of co-authorship networks. {The
elements of descriptive statistics and the tools of the complex network theory
are used to highlight the interdisciplinary as well as international effects.}
Our analysis allows to compare contributions of the international community to
Chornobyl-related research as well as integration of Ukraine in the
international research on this subject. Furthermore, the content analysis of
titles and abstracts of the publications allowed to detect the most important
terms used for description of Chornobyl-related problems.
