10 tips for submitting a successful preprint

Best practices for authors of scientific preprints

Article published at Nature Index, May 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only accelerated the already rapid growth in submissions of preprints in the biological sciences, but has brought them to the public’s attention as never before.

For example, the medical sciences preprint server medRxiv has already posted more than 3,200 preprints related to the disease. In April, it recorded 10 million views from scientists and the general public.

Many authors in the biological and medical sciences are new to the format. Nature Index asked five experts for their advice on preprint etiquette and best practice.

1. Think of a preprint as the ‘directors’ cut’ of a movie

“The right time to post a preprint is when all the authors are happy that it represents their collective view of their work and its interpretation,” says John Inglis, co-founder of the bioRxiv and medRxiv preprint archives.

“We sometimes refer to this as the ‘directors’ cut’, knowing that if the manuscript is submitted to a journal, it may undergo all kinds of change — in length or presentation, as well as revisions of the content itself, after the process of peer review.”

Continue reading at Nature Index