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Animal Ethics Human Research Ethics Research Integrity

Shepherding preprints through a pandemic (Paper – Feature: Theodora Bloom | )

Posted by Dr Gary Allen in Research Integrity on January 13, 2021
Keywords: Analysis, Institutional responsibilities, Merit and integrity, Publication ethics, Research integrity, Research results

The Linked Original Item was Posted On December, 15 2020

The words "FAKE NEWS" coming out of a COVID-19 cell

The medRxiv clinical preprint server launched in 2019 and has had to adapt at pace this year, as preprints have been adopted widely during the pandemic, says Theodora Bloom

People tend to have opinions on preprints and whether they help or hinder progress in research. I’m an unabashed preprint advocate. Of course, some preprints are more important and interesting than others, and some prove to be plain wrong, just like journal articles. And I declare an interest: last year BMJ joined forces with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Yale University to launch a preprint server for clinical medicine, medRxiv (pronounced “med-archive”),1 to enable quicker exchange of research ideas.2 In its first six months medRxiv handled a few hundred articles. In 2020 so far it has posted 12 000, mostly on one topic: coronavirus.3

Some have described the pre-print publication of papers as a laudable component of the move to open science and that it is democratising peer review.  Others have noted with concern, the perils of publishing theories without prior peer review.  Regardless, there can be no dispute of their speed and impact.  This BMJ Editorial Feature reflects on their role amidst a gruelling pandemic.

Before the launch we decided what types of papers to post, how to screen them quickly while limiting risk to patients and populations, and what requirements to place on authors.4 The pandemic changed none of these criteria, but they were all tested repeatedly through discussion channels and video meetings—and our concerns and processes have evolved with each phase of the pandemic.

For example, medRxiv aims to post only research articles (including systematic reviews) and protocols, not opinions or commentaries. But what counts as research? Some blog posts and newspaper articles contain more data and analysis than many preprint submissions. We decided that a preprint describing publicly available data should include research methods, contain more than just graphs and discussion, and discuss the research presented, rather than using a small amount of data to justify an extensive opinion.

Bloom, T. (2020) Shepherding preprints through a pandemic BMJ. 371 :m4703
Publisher (Free access): https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4703

Related Reading

Publishing of COVID-19 preprints in peer-reviewed journals, preprinting trends, public discussion and quality issues (Papers: Ivan Kodvanj, et al | January 2022)

Is preprint the future of science? A thirty year journey of online preprint services (Preprint Papers: Boya Xie, et al | February 2021)

Requiem for impact factors and high publication charges (Papers: Chris R Triggle, et al | April 2021)

Preprints Involving Medical Research—Do the Benefits Outweigh the Challenges? (Papers (Editorial): Annette Flanagin, et al | November 2020)

How a torrent of COVID science changed research publishing — in seven charts – Nature (Holly Else | December 2020)

Journalism, Preprint Servers, and the Truth: Allocating Accountability – Scholarly Kitchen (Rick Anderson | December 2020)

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