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Introduction

Preprints are original research manuscripts which have been shared prior to undergoing peer review. Preprints are typically shared on a preprint archive.

Preprints first arose in the late 20th century in scientific fields such as physics and mathematics. For many years, human-focused disciplines, such as health sciences, were wary of preprints. However, over the last five years, this has shifted significantly. Changes began in 2017 with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) encouraging researchers to share interim research products funded by the NIH via repositories such as preprint servers. In 2019, the first explicitly health sciences focused preprint server was launched: medRxiv. Then COVID-19 hit, sending a wave of articles to preprint servers including medRxiv.

Preprints are now an important component of the research landscape in the health sciences. As a result, searching preprint servers is now an important component of a comprehensive review of unpublished literature on health sciences topics.

What Are Preprints?

Stages of a Preprint publication

Why would anyone share their manuscript prior to publication?

People share preprints for a variety of reasons including but not limited to:

  • To establish primacy in scientific developments
  • To solicit early feedback from peers
  • To disseminate findings faster and more widely
  • To demonstrate progress to funders

Pros and Cons

 

Advantages of Preprints

Disadvantages Preprints 

  • Prompt dissemination

  • Open Access

  • Chance early feedback

  • Easier to find collaborators

  • Increase transparency

  • May publish negative outcomes

  • Get “doi”

  • Promotion for younger researchers

  • Good place to publish a new hypothesis

  • Lack of peer review

  • Absence of quality control

  • Media coverage and spread misinformation

  • Risk of double citations

  • Lack of statistical guideline

  • Could breach intellectual property

  • Information overload

  • Rush to publish low quality information

Finding Preprint servers

Many Google Scholar searches will include preprints in the results--look for common preprint server domains (e.g., arxiv.org). To focus, however, on preprint searching, visit a specific preprint server.

In addition, some search tools aggregate preprint server results, see for example, Lens.org (includes "preprint" as a filter by document-type) or  "Preprints in Europe PMC," below:

Preprint Servers - Where to Share

This is a list of some but not all of the available Preprint servers that are available to researchers. Check out the following resources to find additional preprint servers that are of interest.

This is a list of some but not all of the available Preprint servers that are available to researchers. Check out the following resources to find additional preprint servers that are of interest.

This is a list of some but not all of the available Preprint servers that are available to researchers. Check out the following resources to find additional preprint servers that are of interest.

Citing Preprint