Reliability of citations of medRxiv preprints in articles published on COVID-19 in the world leading medical journals.

Item request has been placed! ×
Item request cannot be made. ×
loading   Processing Request
Read Online Read More Add to Saved list
  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Public Library of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101285081 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1932-6203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19326203 NLM ISO Abbreviation: PLoS One Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science
    • Subject Terms:
      COVID-19*/epidemiology ; Periodicals as Topic*; Humans ; Peer Review ; PubMed ; Reproducibility of Results
    • Abstract:
      Introduction: Preprints have been widely cited during the COVID-19 pandemics, even in the major medical journals. However, since subsequent publication of preprint is not always mentioned in preprint repositories, some may be inappropriately cited or quoted. Our objectives were to assess the reliability of preprint citations in articles on COVID-19, to the rate of publication of preprints cited in these articles and to compare, if relevant, the content of the preprints to their published version.
      Methods: Articles published on COVID in 2020 in the BMJ, The Lancet, the JAMA and the NEJM were manually screened to identify all articles citing at least one preprint from medRxiv. We searched PubMed, Google and Google Scholar to assess if the preprint had been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and when. Published articles were screened to assess if the title, data or conclusions were identical to the preprint version.
      Results: Among the 205 research articles on COVID published by the four major medical journals in 2020, 60 (29.3%) cited at least one medRxiv preprint. Among the 182 preprints cited, 124 were published in a peer-reviewed journal, with 51 (41.1%) before the citing article was published online and 73 (58.9%) later. There were differences in the title, the data or the conclusion between the preprint cited and the published version for nearly half of them. MedRxiv did not mentioned the publication for 53 (42.7%) of preprints.
      Conclusions: More than a quarter of preprints citations were inappropriate since preprints were in fact already published at the time of publication of the citing article, often with a different content. Authors and editors should check the accuracy of the citations and of the quotations of preprints before publishing manuscripts that cite them.
      Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
    • References:
      Scientometrics. 2021;126(6):5285-5304. (PMID: 33897069)
      Elife. 2021 Jun 16;10:. (PMID: 34130793)
      Scientometrics. 2021;126(3):2391-2399. (PMID: 33551516)
      Int Forum Allergy Rhinol. 2021 May;11(5):835-836. (PMID: 33089660)
      Adv Chronic Kidney Dis. 2020 Sep;27(5):418-426. (PMID: 33308508)
      J Intern Med. 2021 Aug;290(2):480-483. (PMID: 33560546)
      BMC Med. 2020 Dec 17;18(1):402. (PMID: 33334338)
      PLoS One. 2020 Oct 6;15(10):e0240123. (PMID: 33022014)
      PeerJ. 2021 Mar 03;9:e10927. (PMID: 33717688)
      BMJ Open. 2021 Jul 16;11(7):e051821. (PMID: 34272226)
      JAMA. 2018 Feb 6;319(5):443-444. (PMID: 29192310)
      J Clin Epidemiol. 2021 Oct;138:203-210. (PMID: 34022394)
      Thorax. 2020 Jul;75(7):532-533. (PMID: 32312737)
      JAMA. 2020 Nov 10;324(18):1903-1905. (PMID: 33170232)
      Scientometrics. 2021;126(6):5305-5319. (PMID: 33994601)
      Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Apr 18;(2):MR000016. (PMID: 17443635)
      Learn Publ. 2021 Oct;34(4):568-577. (PMID: 34226800)
      N Engl J Med. 2020 Nov 19;383(21):2030-2040. (PMID: 33031652)
      Curr Med Res Opin. 2021 May;37(5):861-866. (PMID: 33789058)
      Biochem Med (Zagreb). 2021 Jun 15;31(2):020201. (PMID: 33927548)
      JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Mar 1;4(3):e212110. (PMID: 33734411)
      BMJ. 2020 May 22;369:m1966. (PMID: 32444366)
      Nat Rev Immunol. 2021 Feb;21(2):65-66. (PMID: 33432126)
      PLoS One. 2021 May 13;16(5):e0250887. (PMID: 33983972)
      J Epidemiol. 2021 Jan 5;31(1):97-99. (PMID: 33162425)
      PLoS Biol. 2021 Apr 2;19(4):e3000959. (PMID: 33798194)
      BMJ Open. 2020 Dec 29;10(12):e041849. (PMID: 33376175)
      BMC Med Ethics. 2021 Jul 28;22(1):106. (PMID: 34320970)
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20220810 Date Completed: 20220812 Latest Revision: 20220822
    • Publication Date:
      20240105
    • Accession Number:
      PMC9365132
    • Accession Number:
      10.1371/journal.pone.0264661
    • Accession Number:
      35947594