Pharmaceutical industry–authored preprints: scientific and social media impact

Abstract

Aim

Non–peer-reviewed manuscripts posted as preprints can be cited in peer-reviewed articles, which has both merits and demerits. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines mandate authors to declare preprints at the time of manuscript submission. We evaluated the trends in pharma-authored research published as preprints and their scientific and social media impact by analyzing citation rates and altmetrics.

Research design and methods

We searched EuroPMC, PrePubMed bioRxiv and medRxiv for preprints submitted by authors affiliated with the top 50 pharmaceutical companies from inception until 15 June 2020. Data were extracted and analyzed from the search results. The number of citations for the preprint and peer-reviewed versions (if available) were compiled using the Publish or Perish software (version 1.7). Altmetric score was calculated using the “Altmetric it” online tool. Statistical significance was analyzed by Wilcoxon rank-sum test.

Results

A total of 498 preprints were identified across bioRxiv (83%), PeerJ (5%), F1000Research (6%), Nature Precedings (3%), Preprint.org (3%), Wellcome Open Research preprint (0.2%) and medRxiv (0.2%) servers. Roche, Sanofi and Novartis contributed 56% of the retrieved preprints. The median number of citations for the included preprints was 0 (IQR = 1, Min–Max = 0–45). The median number of citations for the published preprints and unpublished preprints was 0 for both (IQR = 1, Min–Max = 0–25 and IQR = 1, Min-Max = 0–45, respectively; p = .091). The median Altmetric score of the preprints was 4 (IQR = 10.5, Min–Max = 0–160).

Conclusion

Pharma-authored research is being increasingly published as preprints and is also being cited in other peer-reviewed publications and discussed in social media.

Keywords:

• Guidelines
• metrics
• medical communications

Transparency

Declaration of funding

Nothing to declare.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties. CMRO peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

K.S. and A.B. contributed toward the conception, design, analysis, interpretation of the data, drafting and revising the paper critically for intellectual content; A.B., A.N. and S.V. contributed toward revising the paper and provided final approval for the submitted version. All the authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Acknowledgements

None stated.

Previous presentation

A part of this work was previously presented at the 15th Annual Meeting of International Society for Medical Publication Professionals; 16–18 April 2019; National Harbor, MD, USA.