ArticleScientometrics2022
Publishing of COVID-19 preprints in peer-reviewed journals, preprinting trends, public discussion and quality issues.
Article in Scientometrics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic: an overview of systematic reviews.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Beyond correlation and causation: epistemic caution, anomalous findings, and COVID-19 vaccine safety.Philosophy, ethics, and humanities in medicine : PEHM · 2026Review
- The Algorithm's Blindspot: An Ethical Critique of Data-Fetishism and the Deskilling of the Clinical Gaze in Ophthalmology.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2026Article
- [Scientific output of the Revista Médica del IMSS in PubMed (2005-2025): a bibliometric analysis].Revista medica del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social · 2026Article
- Comparison of preprints and their corresponding peer-reviewed publications in the health field: a scoping review.Research integrity and peer review · 2026Review
- The Perspective on Secondary Research Practices: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A Critical Juncture for Drug Information and Evidence-Based Voices.The journal of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics : JPPT : the official journal of PPAG · 2025Article
- Peer review: the imprimatur of scientific publication.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Full publication of preprint articles in prevention research: an analysis of publication proportions and results consistency.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Lessons Learned from a Global Perspective of Coronavirus Disease-2019.Clinics in chest medicine · 2023Review
- Article
- Transparency and reporting characteristics of COVID-19 randomized controlled trials.BMC medicine · 2022Article
- Editorial: Research reproducibility and preventing fraud.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
- The influence of Covid-19 on publications in economics: bibliometric evidence from five working paper series.Scientometrics · 2022Article
- Are smokers protected against SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19)? The origins of the myth.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
COVID-19-related (vs. non-related) articles appear to be more expeditiously processed and published in peer-reviewed journals. We aimed to evaluate: (i) whether COVID-19-related preprints were favored for publication, (ii) preprinting trends and public discussion of the preprints, and (iii) the relationship between the publication topic (COVID-19-related or not) and quality issues. Manuscripts deposited at bioRxiv and medRxiv between January 1 and September 27 2020 were assessed for the probability of publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and those published were evaluated for submission-to-acceptance time. The extent of public discussion was assessed based on Altmetric and Disqus data. The Retraction Watch Database and PubMed were used to explore the retraction of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 articles and preprints. With adjustment for the preprinting server and number of deposited versions, COVID-19-related preprints were more likely to be published within 120 days since the deposition of the first version (OR = 1.96, 95% CI: 1.80-2.14) as well as over the entire observed period (OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.31-1.48). Submission-to-acceptance was by 35.85 days (95% CI: 32.25-39.45) shorter for COVID-19 articles. Public discussion of preprints was modest and COVID-19 articles were overrepresented in the pool of retracted articles in 2020. Current data suggest a preference for publication of COVID-19-related preprints over the observed period. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11192-021-04249-7.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.