Data: Experience with Posting Preprints During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became much more important for many researchers in the life science to disseminate preliminary versions of their results from one day to the next. This kind of “saving the world” feeling led to a search for ways to circumvent the lengthy publication procedures for journal articles, and many researchers decided to post preprints as an upstream publication option. This was a new phenomenon in the life sciences, so it is interesting to study this development and find out whether this is a temporary phenomenon or the beginning of a cultural change in publishing behavior in the life sciences. To gain initial insights into this, we conducted a quantitative survey of authors of COVID-19 related preprints in September 2022. The 25 survey questions were grouped into five parts: a) experiences with posting preprints during the COVID-19 pandemic, b) motivations for posting preprints, c) concerns about posting preprints, d) role of research institutions or research funders and e) future development. The survey contained single- and multiple-choice questions. We received 1,131 completed responses (response rate: 4.9%) from researchers who posted preprints on COVID-19 on the selected preprint servers bioRxiv, medRxiv and Research Square. Preliminary findings suggest that the large prevalence of preprints in the pandemic may lead to a lasting change in publishing behavior.