Comparative analysis of retracted pre-print and peer-reviewed articles on COVID-19

Abstract

IntroductionDue to the accelerated pace and quantum of scientific publication during the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of articles on COVID-19 have been retracted. Pre-prints though not peer-reviewed offer the advantage of rapid dissemination of new findings. In this study, we aim to systematically compare the article characteristics, time to retraction, social media attention, citations, and reasons for retraction between retracted pre-print and peer-reviewed articles on COVID-19. MethodsWe utilized the Retraction Watch database to identify retracted articles on COVID-19 published from 1st January 2020 to 10th March 2022. The articles were reviewed and metadata such as article characteristics (type, category), time to retraction, reasons for retraction, and Altmetric Attention Score (AAS) and citation count were collected. ResultsWe identified 40 retracted pre-prints and 143 retracted peer-reviewed articles. The median (IQR) retraction time for pre-print and peer-reviewed articles was 29 (10-81.5) days and 139 (63-202) days (p = 0.0001). Pre-prints and peer-reviewed article had median (IQR) AAS of 26.5 (4-1155) and 8 (1-38.5), respectively (p = 0.0082). The median (IQR) citation count for pre-prints and peer-reviewed articles was 3 (0-14) and 3 (0-17), respectively (p = 0.5633). The AAS and citation counts were correlated for both pre-prints (r = 0.5200, p = 0.0006) and peer-reviewed articles(r = 0.5909, p = 0.0001). The commonest reason for retraction for pre-prints and peer-reviewed articles concerns about data and results.ConclusionThe increased adoption of pre-prints results in faster identification of erroneous articles compared to the traditional peer-review process.

Indian COVID-19 Preprints Submissions in bioRxiv and medRxiv Preprint Servers

“…One of the preprint which was widely discussed and critiqued on online social networking platforms on claiming to found similarities between the new coronavirus and HIV was retracted in quick time and it was appreciated by the scientific community for its swiftness in which this preprint was taken down (Oransky & Marcus, 2020). A study found that preprints helps in faster identification of erroneous publications as compared to traditional peer-reviewed journals (M. Singh et al, 2022) Submitting or depositing manuscripts in preprint servers has a greater benefit such as instant or rapid peer feedback, wider reach and visibility, and possible collaborative research opportunities, etc. This pandemic has shown how preprints have played an important role in providing quick and open access to research results for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 virus.…”