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Because of the lengthy duration of peer review process and subsequent delay in publication, preprint servers are useful tools for researchers to post full draft of their research papers and immediately get the feedback from their colleagues.<ref name=":0">LetPub. What are preprint servers and what is their role in scholarly publishing? [cited 2020 Oct 12]. Available from:  https://www.letpub.com/author_education_What_are_preprint_servers_and_what_is_their_role_in_scholarly_publishing. </ref> The articles can be posted at no charge<ref name=":1">CARE-writer. So what exactly are preprints and preprint services? [cited 2020 Oct 12]. Available from: https://care-writer.com/preprints-and-preprint-servers. </ref> and authors have the possibility to submit revised versions to the server at any time.<ref name=":0" /> Most of the articles are given a digital object identifier (DOI) so they can be cited.<ref>Mudrak B. What are Preprints, and How Do They Benefit Authors?. AJE Scholar. 2020 Feb. [cited 2020 Oct 12]. Available from: https://www.aje.com/arc/benefits-of-preprints-for-researchers/. </ref><ref name=":1" /> Readers can also upload their comments, which can result in productive discussions.<ref name=":0" />

This way of sharing research results and communication among researchers has its pros and cons.<ref name=":2">Rodríguez E G. Preprints and preprint servers as academic communication tools. Rev Cub Salud. 2019;30(1):1-27.</ref> The most obvious benefit would be higher speed of publication, from 7 days to 2-4 mouths<ref name=":2" /> and evidence of authors’ productivity and accomplishment.<ref name=":3">Foster. Sharing Preprints. [cited 2020 Oct 12]. Available from: https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/learning/sharing-preprints/#/id/5ac23bbcdd1827131b90e79d. </ref> This would justify financial funds, especially in those disciplines with strong competition for development and limited funding.<ref name=":2" /> The use of preprint servers would also foster open science, increase visibility and lead to fast feedback and recommendations for improvement in quality.<ref name=":3" /> Furthermore, it could result in some new collaborations.<ref name=":3" /> On the other hand, researchers need to consider that not all journals will accept manuscripts that have been submitted to a preprint server.<ref name=":3" /> Researchers also might “rush out data prematurely” in order to get credit for their work, which could result in posting low quality and irreproducible data.<ref name=":3" />  
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In areas such as physics, mathematics and economy, preprint servers have been in use for almost 30 years.<ref name=":0">CARE-writer. So what exactly are preprints and preprint services? [cited 2020 Oct 12]. Available from: https://care-writer.com/preprints-and-preprint-servers. </ref> In 1991 a centralized automated repository, the arXiv preprint server, was the pioneer in this method of dissemination of research results. It played an important role in physics, astronomy and mathematics, and later was implemented into other research areas.<ref name=":1">Rodríguez E G. Preprints and preprint servers as academic communication tools. Rev Cub Salud. 2019;30(1):1-27.</ref> Significant number of journals has adopted this practice of posting their manuscripts on preprint servers. About 46% of the 2,566 publishers indexed in SHERPA RoMEO support preprint servers.<ref name=":1" /> The Lancet, for example, posts articles to preprint severs from Social Science Research Network (SSRN).<ref name=":0" />

Preprint servers can be journal (Netprints), non-journal (arXiv), mixed (ResearchGate), subject repositories (Social Sciences Research Network) as well as national and regional servers (Chinese Preprint Server Online).<ref name=":1" /> They can be supported by con-commercial and non-editorial organizations as well. For example, the Welcome Trust in UK has its own preprint server.<ref name=":1" /> Research institutions and funding organizations also can have preprint servers. One of the examples is UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) that includes the manuscripts posted on preprint servers in biomedical research grant applications.<ref name=":1" />

Some of the most popular preprint servers are:

-[https://www.biorxiv.org/ BioRxiv] (a preprint repository for the biological sciences);

-[https://arxiv.org/ arXiv] (an open access archive operated by Cornell University, containing 1,774,607 articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science and economics);

-[https://thewinnower.com/ the Winnower] (an open access online publishing platform that offers an open post-publication peer review);

-[https://psyarxiv.com/ PsyArXiv] (a preprint server for the field of psychology, launched in 2016 by Cornell University);

-[http://www.prepubmed.org/ PrePubMed] (a platform that indexes preprints from PeerJ Preprints, Figshare, bioRxiv, and F1000Research)<ref>LetPub. What are preprint servers and what is their role in scholarly publishing? [cited 2020 Oct 12]. Available from:  https://www.letpub.com/author_education_What_are_preprint_servers_and_what_is_their_role_in_scholarly_publishing. </ref>;

-[https://www.medrxiv.org/ medRxiv] (the first preprint server for medicine, launched in 2019 by Yale and BMJ).<ref>medRxiv. The preprint servers for health sciences. [cited 2020 Oct 20]. Available from: https://www.medrxiv.org/. </ref>

Longer list of preprint repositories can be found [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zYOy6bcydDZ9G56FKmDzg_pexTarVsJR5hH0KiQGt_I/edit#gid=1494155948 here] and [https://asapbio.org/preprint-servers here].

Although there are some preprint servers for medicine, shortcomings of this practice have to be considered. Medical research findings are often discussed by the media and public, so the media release of an unreviewed work can be harmful.<ref>Sheldon T. Preprints could promote confusion and distortion. Nature. 2018 July 24. [correction 2018 July 25; cited 2020 Oct 20]. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05789-4. </ref><ref>Chung K J. preprints: What is their role in medical journals? Arch Plast Surg.2020;47(2):115-117.</ref> Preprints in medicine also raise ethical questions regarding research with humans, therefore the confidentiality of participants should be protected.<ref>Peiperl L. Preprints in medical research: Progress and principles. PLoS Med.2018;15(4):e1002563. </ref>

Nevertheless, in this time of COVID-19 pandemic preprint servers showed to be a useful tool because of the accelerated dissemination of research results. This is important especially regarding treatments and vaccines.<ref>Syed I. The Role of preprints in aiding the speedy dissemination of COVID-19 research. Editage insights. 2020 May 14. [cited 2020 Oct 20]. Available from:

https://www.editage.com/insights/the-role-of-preprints-in-aiding-the-speedy-dissemination-of-covid-19-research. </ref> From the early stages of the pandemic to the mid October, more than 19,000 preprints were produced.<ref>Lachapelle F. COVID-19 Preprints and Their Publishing Rate: An Improved Method. medRxiv. 2020 Oct 13. [cited 2020 Oct 20]. Available from: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.04.20188771v4. </ref> We also have to consider that peer reviewed articles published in journals can present low-quality work. One of the examples is article about a Russian vaccine, published in the Lancet,<ref>Logunov D J, Dolzhikova I V, Zubkova O V, Tukhvatullin A I, Scheblyakov D V, Dzharullaeva A S, et al. Safety and immunogenicity of and rAd26 and rAd5 vector-based heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccine in two formulations: two open, non-randomised phase ½ studies from Russia. The Lancet.2020;396(10255):887-897.</ref> which instigated objections and an open letter to the authors and the Lancet editor. The objections addressed data presented in the article and called for full availability of the original data in order to evaluate the study and enable reproduction of the research findings.<ref>Bucci E. Note of Concern. Cattivi Scienziati fighting bad and pseudo-science. 2020 Sept 7. [cited 2020 Oct 20]. Available from: https://cattiviscienziati.com/2020/09/07/note-of-concern/. </ref><ref>Bucci E, Andreev K, Björkman A, Calogero R A, Carafoli E, Carnici P, et al. Safety and efficacy of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine: more information needed. The Lancet. 2020;396(10256):e53.</ref>
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