Proliferation of papers and preprints during the COVID-19 pandemic: Progress or problems with peer review?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread exponentially throughout the world in a short period, aided by our hyperconnected world including global trade and travel. Unlike previous pandemics, the pace of the spread of the virus has been matched by the pace of publications, not just in traditional journals, but also in preprint servers. Not all publication findings are true, and sifting through the firehose of data has been challenging to peer reviewers, editors, as well as to consumers of the literature i.e. scientists, health care workers, and the general public. There has been an equally exponential rise in the public discussion on social media. Rather than decry the pace of change, we suggest the nephrology community should embrace it, making deposition of research into preprint servers the default, encouraging pre-publication peer review more widely of such preprint studies, and harnessing social media tools to make these actions easier and seamless.