The Role of Preprints in Neuroscience Scholarly Communication: A Citation Analysis

Preprints, scientific manuscripts publicly shared prior to peer-review, are now part of scholarly communication as emerging information resources. While neuroscience researchers have increasingly published preprints, the impact of preprints in this field remains unclear. Through a bibliometric approach, this case study explored preprint citation patterns. Results yielded over 33,000 citations to preprints within Scopus-indexed neuroscience documents (1993-2022). Trends of citations and citation motivations were investigated. Findings indicated that 1.62% of neuroscience publications cited at least one preprint, with citations peaking at 6% in 2021. Review and journal articles cited preprints more frequently, compared to books, notes, and conference papers (X² = 1909.015, p < 0.001). The most commonly cited servers were bioRxiv, arXiv, medRxiv, and PsyArXiv. Regarding journals, a moderate positive correlation (rs = 0.353, p < 0.01) was found between publications citing preprints and journals’ CiteScores. Using Scite.ai, 93% of citations were classified as ‘mentioning,’ with considerably fewer being supporting or contrasting. Most preprint citations appeared in Introduction and Discussion, highlighting their role in framing research questions and contextualizing results. The global overview of these results may help contextualize citation behavior in relation to structural and cultural factors, such as disciplinary norms, policy frameworks, researchers' attitudes, and health emergencies.