ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Preprints have been widely cited during the COVID-19 pandemics, even in the major medical journals. However, since subsequent publication of preprint is not always mentioned in preprint repositories, some may be inappropriately cited or quoted. Our objectives were to assess the reliability of preprint citations in articles on COVID-19, to the rate of publication of preprints cited in these articles and to compare, if relevant, the content of the preprints to their published version. METHODS: Articles published on COVID in 2020 in the BMJ, The Lancet, the JAMA and the NEJM were manually screened to identify all articles citing at least one preprint from medRxiv. We searched PubMed, Google and Google Scholar to assess if the preprint had been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and when. Published articles were screened to assess if the title, data or conclusions were identical to the preprint version. RESULTS: Among the 205 research articles on COVID published by the four major medical journals in 2020, 60 (29.3%) cited at least one medRxiv preprint. Among the 182 preprints cited, 124 were published in a peer-reviewed journal, with 51 (41.1%) before the citing article was published online and 73 (58.9%) later. There were differences in the title, the data or the conclusion between the preprint cited and the published version for nearly half of them. MedRxiv did not mentioned the publication for 53 (42.7%) of preprints. CONCLUSIONS: More than a quarter of preprints citations were inappropriate since preprints were in fact already published at the time of publication of the citing article, often with a different content. Authors and editors should check the accuracy of the citations and of the quotations of preprints before publishing manuscripts that cite them.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Periodicals as Topic , COVID-19/epidemiology , Humans , Peer Review , PubMed , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a face mask has become usual and ubiquitous, in both hospitals and community. However, the general public is consuming surgical or filtering face piece (FFP) masks irrespective of their specificity, leading to global supply shortage for the most exposed persons, which are healthcare workers. This underlines the urgent need to clarify the indications of the different categories of mask, in order to rationalize their use. The study herein specifies the French position for the rational use of respiratory protective equipment for healthcare workers.