Editorial: Preprints and peer-reviewed journals

Abstract

They allow researchers to share their findings and data at the point the research is completed, ahead of peer review. In the biomedical field, preprints are usually completed research, written up as a full paper that can be submitted to a journal. Most preprints do not change substantially between preprint and published version (Brierley et al., 2022). But even before the pandemic, preprints have been defined as an important feature of modern scholarly communication in life sciences (Berg et al., 2016).Major motivations for the use of preprints are early discovery; free access; immediate feedback from the scientific community (Maggio et al., 2018); increased citations and media mentions (Fraser et al., 2020). Though it has changed during the pandemic, still the standard advice is that the press should not report on preprints, and institutions should not promote preprints to the press (Fox, 2020). Specialists in scholarly communication have also discussed issues concerning the potential risks related to this format: lack of longer-term financial sustainability of some preprint servers, jeopardizing the role of scientific journals in academia, risking the scientific integrity and soundness, erroneously claiming of authorship and stewardship, scooping of research, financial transparency and grant contracts, copyright ownership, intellectual property rights, public disclosures and patent applications, and journal and institutional policies conflicts (Chaleplioglou and Koulouris, 2021). Still, many of these perceived risks are similar to issues with the existing journal system, and there is no current evidence that the situation will worsen with preprints: "In practice, these tendencies are mitigated by the powerful driving force of scientists to develop and maintain a good reputation within the scientific community. Reputation is the single most important factor for developing a sustained career in the sciences" (Preprint FAQ https://asapbio.org/preprintinfo/preprint-faq#qaef-643).Among the new trends related to preprints in life sciences are a growing number of preprint platforms operating under different models of ownership and governance (over 50 platforms); a closer integration of preprint servers with journal workflows; a continuous increase of papers posted as preprints and use of preprints in policy documents (Puebla et al., 2021, Fraser et al., 2021.Though the vast majority of peer-reviewed journals in the life sciences encourage or allow preprints, it is always recommended that researchers check the journal's publication policy prior to depositing their preprints, as the compatibility of publishing a preprint in a peer-reviewed journal could meet three types of restrictions: by the server type (for profit or non-for-profit, commercial or not), the paper version (posting of the revised manuscript) and the licence of preprint distribution (Chaleplioglou and Koulouris, 2021).Similar approach is applied by the journals from the Emerald Publishing (now part of the Cambridge Information Group). When you submit you...

The use and acceptability of preprints in health and social care settings: a scoping review

“…(30) Furthermore, many of the potential risks associated with preprints reported not only from academia but also from publishers and funding organisations, exist within the traditional peer review publication system. (69) The COVID-19 pandemic may have initiated a cultural shift in the use of preprints by academia, publishers, funding organisations, the public and policymakers as a whole. (20,24,25,65) Academic community acceptability of preprints One of the key challenges for the academic community is the lack of or no clear policies on the citation of preprints, from publishers and journals but also funding organisations.…”

“…Several publishers are actively encouraging the research community to use preprints to publish their manuscripts (e.g., Lancet, BMC, Thorax and eLife); offering to upload the manuscript to a preprint server on their behalf following submission (e.g., PLOS); developing and introducing their own preprint server for specific research (e.g., Nature for COVID research); reviewing tools to reduce information overload (e.g., simultaneous multi-preprint server retrieval tools to aggregate preprints); and publishing the preprint version alongside the peer reviewed journal article on the website (e.g., PeerJ and F1000Research). (4,6,18,46,58,69,73,75) Publishers such as the Lancet and eLife are also disseminating their own preprint policies and guidance in editorials and commentaries on how the model of publishing is changing. (52) The PubMed database is also taking steps to index preprints from journals such as F1000 and PeerJ.…”

The use and acceptability of preprints in health and social care settings: A scoping review

“…but also from publishers and funding organisations, exist within the traditional peer review publication system [98]. The COVID-19 pandemic may have initiated a cultural shift in the use of preprints by academia, publishers, funding organisations, the public and policymakers as a whole [10,25,29,30,81].…”

“…There is a clear indication that publishers are reviewing their policies and amplifying the preprints model [3,45] and these changes were also evident in the grey literature of publishers and journals. Several publishers are actively encouraging the research community to use preprints to publish their manuscripts (e.g., Lancet, BMC, Thorax and eLife); offering to upload the manuscript to a preprint server on their behalf following submission (e.g., PLOS); developing and introducing their own preprint server for specific research (e.g., Nature for COVID research); reviewing tools to reduce information overload (e.g., simultaneous multi-preprint server retrieval tools to aggregate preprints); and publishing the preprint version alongside the peer reviewed journal article on the website (e.g., PeerJ and F1000Research) [4,6,23,49,74,83,98,101].…”

Editorial: IJHG author guidelines and policies

“…When submitting a paper to Emerald that has been shared to a preprint server, we ask that the authors make it clear to the editor of the journal on submission that the work is already hosted on a preprint server. However, this policy is active for several years and we explained it in detail in one of the previous Editorials (Ibragimova and Phagava, 2022); until now, no author mentioned this is their cover letters, while nearly a third of manuscripts submitted to IJHG have been already posted as preprints.…”