Do reviewers accept analyses generated by bioinformatic tools published as a preprint?

General Discussion
#1

Hello,

I am wondering if reviewers would accept analyses performed by using bioinformatic tools that were published as a preprint?

Thanks

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#2

Hi! To my best knowledge, PICRUST2 was cited numerous times as a preprint before the Nature paper. But really it depends on the reviewers and the tool.

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#3

Yep, it happens all the time. To add another example to @timanix, the QIIME2 preprint was cited quite a bit before landing in Nature Biotech.

-Mike

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#4

I’ll add a third voice and say it’s pretty standard. There are tools that people have used and cited long before there was a pre-print. (Scipy has been around for a decade and they were just published last year?). I think a preprint helps, especially if there’s something novel about the method. It also makes it easier for the authors to consolidate citations down the line - which is good because you partially tip your academic software developers in citations. But, in general, yes, it’s common and should be encouraged!

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#5

Thank you all for your valuable input!
Best,
Eman

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