Abstract
The current outbreak of COVID-19 has escalated into a global health
crisis. Investigations into the epidemic have taken place upon an
unprecedented stage of rapid, open-platform science, including vastly
improved access to unreviewed preprint research.
I quantified preprint responses to COVID-19 by examining 785 preprints
posted to English-language preprint servers (bioRxiv, n = 140;
medRxiv, n = 561; arXiv, n = 84). Preprint research during the
current outbreak has been enormously accelerated, with an average of
11.9 preprints posted per day – over a hundred-fold higher than that during
2014’s West African ebolavirus outbreak.
While this boom in preprints has enabled valuable knowledge sharing of
scientific developments, novel challenges have become apparent.
Unfounded conclusions from unreviewed research have played a clear role
in public misinformation about the epidemic. I provide recommendations
to improve accountability and transparency surrounding preprints, a
vital step for future outbreaks as open-platform epidemiology continues
to advance.