How to leverage preprints in your research
The publish-or-perish culture in academia is undoubtedly implacable. There is no going ahead in your career without validating your work and providing proof of your productivity. Or, at the very least, providing proof that you have the skills and knowledge to conduct high-quality research. Peer-reviewed research papers give you just that. But these can take anywhere from weeks to years to get published, with several cycles of rejections, revisions, and resubmissions. What’s the alternative? It's one word – preprints.
Preprints are preliminary versions of scientific manuscripts that are published on the World Wide Web, freely accessible by all, without peer review. So, if you have a draft that you are ready to submit to a journal, you could upload it to an appropriate preprint server and get it published effortlessly, following a basic screening procedure. The process is so much quicker and less arduous than traditional publishing. Within just a couple of days, you can share your work with peers, colleagues, and even funding agencies and prospective employers.
Advantages of preprints
Yes, the process of publishing your work as a preprint is pretty prompt and straightforward. This means you can share your results with the world [open access!] while you are still excited about it; that is before your findings become outdated. It helps you establish priority on your findings or ideas because preprints are timestamped with a DOI, which can be accessed and verified by anyone. But, wait! There are so many more benefits to this form of publishing.
If your preprint is published later in a peer-reviewed journal, it is likely to be cited more often than if it had not been published as a preprint. In other words, preprints increase the citation counts of the corresponding journal article. In fact, articles with preprints have also been observed to have higher Altmetric Attention Scores or social media traction, which not only look good on your CV but also increase your visibility and facilitate networking. You could even receive job offers or exciting collaboration proposals!
Following preprints in your field can help you stay up to date on the latest findings from different labs, which is valuable when you're considering applying to new labs. This allows you to not only identify labs of interest but also stay informed about the latest research in your field; it can be very helpful during interviews. Knowledge thus gained, including newfound results, methodologies or even insights into a new compound, can also be immensely useful in designing your own research study.
Preprints, as open-access platforms, also facilitate commentary and discussions. A wider range of experts could provide fresh perspectives or even concerns on your research that you may not have considered. This can allow you to improve your paper before submitting it to a more prestigious journal. Also, being a part of the commentary on other preprints in your field will enable you to hone your own reviewing skills, lending your opinions and insights to other studies, thus expanding your knowledge base.
Many prominent funding agencies and research institutions have also begun allowing researchers to include preprints in grant applications and reports. Several journals too have now begun encouraging authors to publish their work as preprints.
Additionally, unlike manuscripts published in journals, most preprint servers allow you to revise your article, providing reanalyses, corrections, new data sets, expanded discussion or other supplementary information, with each revision being linked to the previous and subsequent versions. Negative or null results too, that are not encouraged by many journals, can be published as a preprint.
Popular pre-print services that you could consider for your next paper
MedRxiv is a preprint server for the medical, clinical and health sciences, with a screening mechanism more stringent than most others.
bioRxiv is a preprint server for the biological sciences also adopting a strict screening mechanism.
SSRN (Social Science Research Network) is a preprint server, now acquired by Elsevier, that specialises primarily in social sciences but has diversified to include other scientific disciplines.
engrXiv is a preprint server that accepts preprints on all topics related to engineering.
ChemRxiv is a preprint server for chemistry and related fields.
SocArXiv is a preprint server that accepts preprints in social sciences and humanities.
Preprints.org is a preprint server that accepts scientific manuscripts from all fields of science and technology.
There are many more that specifically cater to various research fields or locations or languages, such as EarthArXiv, AgriXiv, LawArXiv, PsyArXiv, PaleorXiv, SportRxiv, AfricArxiv, IndiArxiv, INArxiv and Arabixiv.
As an ECR why should you embrace preprints?
No matter where you are in your career, preprints can help you stay up to date on the latest research, share your work with the world instantly, and get feedback from your peers. It provides a platform where you can review the work of your peers and share your thoughts and insights on them, thus allowing you to network and build professional relationships. Preprints give you a glimpse into what researchers, globally, are discovering, in real-time. This can help you stay ahead of the competition and improve your subject expertise.
But the best part of preprints, especially as far as you, an ECR, are concerned is undoubtedly speed. You do not possess the luxury of tenure. You need to show your work achievements quickly to move on to your next position. Preprints give you a platform to fast-track the dissemination of your work. Even if your results aren’t anything too spectacular or paradigm-changing! Without paying any fee, your article gets published with open access, with a citable and shareable DOI!
The feedback you receive from your peers (which is more likely if you share your preprint on social media) can help you improve your paper, and prepare for upcoming interviews. And then, if you have the time, you can submit a more robust manuscript to a more prestigious journal than you had originally intended. You have a better chance of acceptance now, because, hey, your work has already been reviewed and improved.
What does the future look like?
Yes, preprints do have their share of drawbacks; specifically, the lack of peer review before a manuscript is published. Flawed research and communication could reach the public and give rise to the spread of misinformation. However, despite these drawbacks, preprints are becoming increasingly popular, and they will possibly play an even more prominent role in scientific publishing in the future. Journals and academic publishers today have begun accepting and even endorsing preprints instead of regarding them as a threat.
Preprints are being embraced for their speedy dissemination, openness, and transparency it offers in peer review and the publication process in general, which has a direct impact on accountability. Both, the authors and the reviewers are forced to ensure that their work/words are as accurate as possible because it is all presented before the public, with their real identities. This will improve the quality of both, the manuscript and the peer review, in direct contrast to the traditional publication methods.
Many journal processes are now integrating with preprints as part of their editorial or publication process. eLife has announced a publishing process that eliminates acceptance/ rejection decisions after peer review. Instead, they offer to publish every paper that it reviews as a Reviewed Preprint that includes the manuscript and the journal’s peer reviews. The Open Journal of Astrophysics offers authors, whose works are on arXiv, to submit their article in the journal, which then provides a traditional peer review. If the article is accepted, it is considered a published article within the journal. However, only a summary is provided on the journal site, and the final article is linked to arXiv.
Cell Press journals now allow authors to post their submitted manuscript on Cell Press Sneak Peek, their preprint server that’s hosted on SSRN (Social Science Research Network), while it is under review. PLOS journals give you the option of having your submitted paper uploaded to bioRxiv or medRxiv on your behalf, while the paper is under review. The Lancet family of journals upload all submissions, if the author opts in, onto Preprints with The Lancet on SSRN.
ASAPbio and the journal EMBO have launched Review Commons, which allows authors, who upload their articles onto bioRxiv, to request peer-reviews from the EMBO editorial office, which are then posted against the article on bioRxiv. After review, authors can choose to submit their revised/unaltered article to any one of their 17 participating journals, which can in turn accept or reject the article based on the reviews received on the original article.
Conclusion
Preprints are most definitely changing the way that scientific research is being disseminated. If you haven’t tried them yet, then consider beginning by choosing a few preprint servers that are reputable and cater to your discipline. Read a few articles daily on these servers – articles that are in line with your work. Comment and interact with the authors. Ask questions. Use this experience to gauge whether you wish to try preprints for your research, and then make an informed choice on whether you want to leverage them in your research.
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