Over a year ago, I uploaded a preprint into bioRxiv. When people upload preprints, bioRxiv sensible puts on a disclaimer that, “This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed.”
A little over a week ago, the final, paginated version of the paper that arose from the preprint was published. Now, bioRxiv is supposed to update its notice automatically to say, “Now published in (journal name and DOI).”
Perhaps because the final paper was substantially different than the preprint – in particular, the title changed – bioRxiv didn’t catch it. I had to email bioRxiv’s moderators through the contact form asking them to make the update.
The preprint was making more work for me. Again. It wasn’t a lot of work, I admit, but people advocating preprints often talk about them as though they take effectively zero time. They don’t. You have to pay attention to them to ensure things are being done properly. I want people to cite the final paper when it’s available, not the preprint.
Some journals are talking about using bioRxiv as their submission platform. This would be a good step, because it would remove work duplication.
I’m glad I’ve been through the preprint experience. But I am still not sold on its benefits to me as a routine part of my workflow. It seems all the advantages that I might gain from preprints can be achieved by other methods, notably publishing in open access journals with a good history of good peer review and production time.
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