From amazing work to I beg to differ: analysis of bioRxiv preprints that received one public comment till September 2019

Abstract

Between 21 May 2016 and 9 September 2019, 1,983 bioRxiv preprints received a single public comment on the bioRxiv website. More than two thirds of those comments were posted by non-authors (n=1,366, 69%) while the remainder were posted by the preprint’s authors (n=617, 31%). Overall, the non-author comments were longer than comments posted by the authors (median number of words was 38, IQR 17 to 83, for non-authors vs 18, IQR 11 to 32, for authors, Mann-Whitney test, P<0.001), and they were posted a median of 23 days (IQR 3 to 117) after the preprints. In comparison, authors’ comments were posted after a median of 91 days (IQR 3 to 23, Mann-Whitney test, P<0.001). Twelve percent of non-author’s comments (n=168) were full review reports resembling those traditionally submitted during the journal peer review process. Comments not resembling full peer review reports most commonly praised the preprint (n=577, 42%), made suggestions on how to improve it (n=399, 29%), or criticized some aspect of the preprint (n=226, 17%). Authors’ comments most commonly contained updates about the preprint’s publication status (n=354, 57%), additional information on the study (n=158, 26%), or solicited feedback for the preprint (n=65, 11%).