[論文レビュー] Is preprint the future of science? A thirty year journey of online preprint services

Boya Xie, Z. Shen+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 17, 2021

Academic Publishing and Open Access参考文献 25被引用数 34

ひとこと要約

この論文はオンラインプレプリントサービスの三十年を定量的に分析し、プレプリントが指数的に成長し、早期の可視化と高い引用をもたらし、査読済み研究と質が同等であることを示す。公衆衛生緊急時を含む迅速な情報共有におけるプレプリントの役割を強調する。

ABSTRACT

Preprint is a version of a scientific paper that is publicly distributed preceding formal peer review. Since the launch of arXiv in 1991, preprints have been increasingly distributed over the Internet as opposed to paper copies. It allows open online access to disseminate the original research within a few days, often at a very low operating cost. This work overviews how preprint has been evolving and impacting the research community over the past thirty years alongside the growth of the Web. In this work, we first report that the number of preprints has exponentially increased 63 times in 30 years, although it only accounts for 4% of research articles. Second, we quantify the benefits that preprints bring to authors: preprints reach an audience 14 months earlier on average and associate with five times more citations compared with a non-preprint counterpart. Last, to address the quality concern of preprints, we discover that 41% of preprints are ultimately published at a peer-reviewed destination, and the published venues are as influential as papers without a preprint version. Additionally, we discuss the unprecedented role of preprints in communicating the latest research data during recent public health emergencies. In conclusion, we provide quantitative evidence to unveil the positive impact of preprints on individual researchers and the community. Preprints make scholarly communication more efficient by disseminating scientific discoveries more rapidly and widely with the aid of Web technologies. The measurements we present in this study can help researchers and policymakers make informed decisions about how to effectively use and responsibly embrace a preprint culture.

研究の動機と目的

• Assess the growth and adoption of online preprint services across disciplines over 1991–2020.
• Quantify the impact of preprints on authors’ early visibility and citation counts.
• Evaluate the perceived and actual quality of preprints via publication rates and venue impact factors.
• Examine the role of preprints in rapid dissemination during public health emergencies.
• Provide evidence to inform policy and practice on responsible preprint adoption.

提案手法

• Construct a large-scale, multidisciplinary preprint dataset from Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) covering 2.8 million preprints and 69.8 million peer-reviewed articles (1991–2020).
• Classify papers into P-only, JC-only, and P-JC groups and compute derived metrics (e.g., days to publish, citations).
• Measure annual preprint growth and domain-level adoption; compare preprint-cited vs non-preprint papers.
• Analyze preprint publication rates and destination venue impact factors to assess quality signals.
• Examine preprint usage during COVID-19/health emergencies to illustrate rapid dissemination benefits.]
• research_questions: [

実験結果

リサーチクエスチョン

• RQ1 What is the growth trajectory of online preprints over 1991–2020 and how does it vary by discipline?
• RQ2 Do preprints provide earlier visibility and higher citation counts compared with papers without preprints?
• RQ3 What share of preprints eventually get published in peer-reviewed venues and what is the quality signal of those venues?
• RQ4 How do preprints contribute to rapid dissemination during public health emergencies like COVID-19?

主な発見

• Preprint volume grew from about 3,000 in 1991 to 227,000 in 2019, with 192,000 preprints in the first nine months of 2020 alone.
• A preprint precedes its journal/conference publication by an average of 14 months in reach to audiences.
• P-JC papers have a median of 14.8 citations versus 2.6 for JC-only papers, indicating about five times more citations on average.
• 41% of preprints eventually publish in peer-reviewed venues, with physics and mathematics showing the highest publication rates among domains.
• Biology shows a recent surge with publication rates rising from 23% to over 80% (2017).
• P-JC papers tend to be published in venues with comparable or higher impact factors than JC-all papers, indicating similar or better venue quality.
• Preprints played a pivotal role in disseminating results during COVID-19, with substantial uptake and rapid sharing across platforms.