Top-ranked clinical journals largely allow preprint submissions

As scientists increasingly publish their work on preprint servers, a new study find that the vast majority of top-ranked peer-reviewed clinical journals also accept submissions of these preprints. Peer-reviewed journals have historically had policies against accepting research that has already been shared publicly. Scientists looked at 100 clinical journals with a 2018 impact score that only the top 7% of journals tend to have, and found that 86% of them — including the Lancet and Cancer Discovery — allowed preprints. Eleven of the journals, such as JAMA, had a policy that allows preprints on a case-by-case basis, while only one journal — the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology — did not allow submissions for research that had been published on a preprint server. The study also found no association between a journal's impact factor and its policy on preprints.