Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic

Brierley, Liam ORCID: 0000-0002-3026-4723, Nanni, Federico, Polka, Jessica K, Dey, Gautam, Palfy, Mate, Fraser, Nicholas and Coates, Jonathon Alexis (2022) Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic. PLOS BIOLOGY, 20 (2). e3001285-.

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.

Text
Tracking changes between preprint posting and journal publication during a pandemic.docx - Author Accepted Manuscript
Download (265kB)

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001285

Abstract

Amid the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, preprints in the biomedical sciences are being posted and accessed at unprecedented rates, drawing widespread attention from the general public, press, and policymakers for the first time. This phenomenon has sharpened long-standing questions about the reliability of information shared prior to journal peer review. Does the information shared in preprints typically withstand the scrutiny of peer review, or are conclusions likely to change in the version of record? We assessed preprints from bioRxiv and medRxiv that had been posted and subsequently published in a journal through April 30, 2020, representing the initial phase of the pandemic response. We utilised a combination of automatic and manual annotations to quantify how an article changed between the preprinted and published version. We found that the total number of figure panels and tables changed little between preprint and published articles. Moreover, the conclusions of 7.2% of non-COVID-19-related and 17.2% of COVID-19-related abstracts undergo a discrete change by the time of publication, but the majority of these changes do not qualitatively change the conclusions of the paper.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Humans, Information Dissemination, Peer Review, Research, Publications, Publishing, Periodicals as Topic, Pandemics, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2021 09:19
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 21:23
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pbio.3001285
Open Access URL:	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001285
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3144285