Skip to Main Content

Preprints: The Basics: Further Reading

A guide on what preprints are and why they are beneficial.

Further Reading on Preprints

Listed are selected publications discussing various benefits and potential disadvantages of preprints. This page was last updated May 27, 2021.

1. Abdill RJ, Blekhman R. Meta-research: Tracking the popularity and outcomes of all bioRxiv preprints. Elife. 2019 Apr 24;8:e45133. Available from: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45133.001

2. ASAPbio [Internet]. San Francisco CA: ASAPbio; c2021. Preprint FAQs; 2021 April; [about 10 screens]. Available from: https://asapbio.org/preprint-info/preprint-faq

3. Bourne PE, Polka JK, Vale RD, Kiley R. Ten simple rules to consider regarding preprint submission. PLoS Computational Biology. 2017 May 4;13(5):e1005473. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005473

4. Cobb M. The prehistory of biology preprints: A forgotten experiment from the 1960s. PLoS Biology. 2017 Nov 16;15(11):e2003995. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003995

5. Fry NK, Marshall H, Mellins-Cohen T. In praise of preprints. Access Microbiology. 2019;1(2). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1099/acmi.0.000013

6. Kwon D. How swamped preprint servers are blocking bad coronavirus research. Nature. 2020:130-1. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01394-6

7. Lin J, Yu Y, Zhou Y, Zhou Z, Shi X. How many preprints have actually been printed and why: a case study of computer science preprints on arXiv. Scientometrics. 2020 Jul;124(1):555-74. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03430-8

8. Nature Index [Internet]. Q&A John Ioannidis: Biomedicine warms to preprints. Basingstoke, UK: Springer Nature. 2018 Feb. Available from: https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/john-ioannidis-biomedicine-warms-to-preprints

9. Maslove DM. Medical preprints—a debate worth having. JAMA. 2018 Feb 6;319(5):443-4. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.17566

10. Penfold NC, Polka JK. Technical and social issues influencing the adoption of preprints in the life sciences. PLoS Genetics. 2020 Apr 20;16(4):e1008565. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1008565