What are medical or health sciences preprints?

No, medical or health sciences preprints have not undergone the pivotal role of peer review. Peer review can be a lengthy process and early posting allows that information to be available sooner to the medical community for discussion and commenting.

Yes, as the dangers associated with posting potentially misleading studies are increased for medical and health science studies, we screen these preprints for disclosure of ethics, conflicts/declaration of interest, funding and trial registration (where appropriate).

To learn more about our medical screening process view our FAQ SSRN Medical or Health Sciences Preprint Checklist

In addition, for studies that use vertebrate animals to model human disease we request animal welfare statements. For such studies, authors must perform their work in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations, and it is required that authors identify the committee that approved the experiments and confirm that all experiments conform to the relevant regulatory standards.

We use a watermark to indicate that a paper is a medical or health sciences preprint. It is an industry standard to provide such a notice because of potential implications to health care.

We do not post studies that have potential to cause harm. We also do not post medical or health sciences preprints that are abstract only or studies that we cannot screen because they are non-English (note that we do post abstract only and non-English for non-medical or non-health care studies). We do not post extended abstracts or short communications of clinical studies as we require the full study including details surrounding the data gathering and analysis. All medical papers are subject to our standard medical screening review process.

Medical or health science preprints at SSRN are designed for the rapid, early dissemination of research findings; therefore, in most instances, we do not post reviews or opinion-led pieces, as well as editorials and perspectives.

Yes, see How do I revise a submission?