Preprint metadata for bioRxiv and medRxiv

Our preprint dataset is derived from the same dataset presented in version 1 of Fraser and colleagues [11]. In brief terms, bioRxiv and medRxiv preprint metadata (DOIs, titles, abstracts, author names, corresponding author name and institution, dates, versions, licenses, categories, and published article links) were obtained via the bioRxiv Application Programming Interface (API; https://api.biorxiv.org). The API accepts a “server” parameter to enable retrieval of records for both bioRxiv and medRxiv. Metadata was collected for preprints posted September 4, 2019 to April 30, 2020 (n = 14,812). All data were collected on May 1, 2020. Note that where multiple preprint versions existed, we included only the earliest version and recorded the total number of following revisions. Preprints were classified as “COVID-19 preprints” or “non-COVID-19 preprints” on the basis of the following terms contained within their titles or abstracts (case insensitive): “coronavirus,” “covid-19,” “sars-cov,” “ncov-2019,” “2019-ncov,” “hcov-19,” and “sars-2.”