Purpose

Thousands of preprints related to Covid-19 have effused into the academic literature. Even though these are not peer-reviewed documents and have not been vetted by medical or other experts, several have been cited, while others have been widely promoted by the media. While many preprints eventually find their way into the published literature, usually through integrated publishing streams, there is a small body of preprints that have been opaquely withdrawn/retracted, without suitable reasons, leaving only a vestigial or skeletal record online. Others have, quite literally, vanished. This paper aims to examine some of those cases.

Design/methodology/approach

For peer-reviewed literature, a retracted academic paper is usually water-marked with “RETRACTED” across each page of the document, as recommended by ethical bodies such as the Committee on Publication Ethics, which represents thousands of journals and publishers. Curiously, even though pro-preprint groups claim that preprints are an integral part of the publication process and a scholarly instrument, there are no strict, detailed or established ethical guidelines for preprints on most preprint servers. This paper identifies select withdrawn/retracted preprints and emphasizes that the opaque removal of preprints from the scholarly record may constitute unscholarly, possibly even predatory or unethical, behavior.

Findings

Strict ethical guidelines are urgently needed for preprints, and preprint authors, in the case of misconduct, should face the same procedure and consequences as standard peer-reviewed academic literature.

Originality/value

Journals and publishers that have silently retracted or withdrawn preprints should reinstate them, as for regular retracted literature, except for highly exceptional cases.

中文翻译：

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与 Covid-19 相关的无声撤回或撤回的预印本是一种学术威胁和潜在的公共卫生风险：理论论点和建议

目的

数以千计与 Covid-19 相关的预印本已涌入学术文献。尽管这些不是同行评审的文件，也没有经过医学或其他专家的审查，但有一些已经被引用，而另一些则被媒体广泛宣传。虽然许多预印本最终会进入已发表的文献，通常是通过整合的出版流，但仍有一小部分预印本在没有适当理由的情况下被不透明地撤回/撤回，只留下在线的残余或骨架记录。从字面上看，其他人已经消失了。本文旨在研究其中的一些案例。

设计/方法/方法

对于同行评审的文献，被撤回的学术论文通常在文件的每一页上都标有“撤回”的水印，这是道德机构（例如代表数千家期刊和出版商的出版道德委员会）所推荐的。奇怪的是，尽管支持预印本的团体声称预印本是出版过程的一个组成部分和学术工具，但在大多数预印本服务器上，并没有严格、详细或既定的预印本道德准则。本文确定了一些被撤回/撤回的预印本，并强调从学术记录中不透明地删除预印本可能构成不学术，甚至可能是掠夺性或不道德的行为。

调查结果

预印本迫切需要严格的道德准则，预印本作者在不当行为的情况下，应面临与标准同行评审学术文献相同的程序和后果。

原创性/价值

已经悄悄撤回或撤回预印本的期刊和出版商应恢复它们，就像常规撤回的文献一样，除非是非常特殊的情况。