COVID-19 Preprints and Their Publishing Rate: An Improved Method

ContextAs the COVID-19 pandemic persists around the world, the scientific community continues to produce and circulate knowledge on the deadly disease at an unprecedented rate. During the early stage of the pandemic, preprints represented nearly 40% of all English-language COVID-19 scientific corpus (6, 000+ preprints | 16, 000+ articles). As of mid-August 2020, that proportion dropped to around 28% (13, 000+ preprints | 49, 000+ articles). Nevertheless, preprint servers remain a key engine in the efficient dissemination of scientific work on this infectious disease. But, giving the ‘uncertified’ nature of the scientific manuscripts curated on preprint repositories, their integration to the global ecosystem of scientific communication is not without creating serious tensions. This is especially the case for biomedical knowledge since the dissemination of bad science can have widespread societal consequences.ScopeIn this paper, I propose a robust method that allows the repeated monitoring and measuring of COVID-19 preprints’ publication rate. I also introduce a new API called Upload-or-Publish. It is a free micro-API service that enables a client to query a specific preprint manuscript’s publication status and associated meta-data using a unique ID. The beta-version is currently working and deployed.DataI use Covid-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) to calculate COVID-19 preprint corpus’ conversion rate to peer-reviewed articles. CORD-19 dataset includes 10,454 preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, and medRxiv.MethodsI utilize conditional fuzzy logic to link preprints with their published counterparts. My approach is an important departure from previous studies that rely exclusively on bio/medRxiv API to ascertain preprints’ publication status. This is problematic since the level of false negatives in bio/medRxiv non-COVID-19 metadata could be as high as 37%. My analysis suggests bio/medRxiv API accurately captures about only 50% of its published preprints. My improved method clocked an F1-score of 0.96.FindingsMy analysis reveals that 19.6% (n=2048) of COVID-19 preprint manuscripts in the CORD-19 dataset uploaded on arXiv, bioRxiv, and medRxiv between January and early September 2020 were published in peer-reviewed venues. When compared to the most recent measure available, this represents a two-fold increase in a period of two months. My discussion review and theorize on the potential explanations for COVID-19 preprints’ overall low conversion rate.

Autism spectrum disorder, bestiality and zoophilia: a systematic PRISMA review

Purpose There remains a lack of knowledge surrounding paraphilic or deviant arousal sexual behaviours in individuals with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Kellaher, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to explore the literature for any empirical study, case study or discussion/review paper surrounding individuals with ASD and zoophilia or bestiality. Design/methodology/approach A systematic PRISMA review was conducted. Findings This systematic review highlighted only a small number of papers, which have looked at zoophilia or bestiality in individuals with ASD. Only one article was identified as being relevant in the present review, three further articles included a description of a case involving someone with ASD who engaged in zoophilia or bestiality and another paper, although not the focus of the study, found one person with Asperger’s disorder who had several paraphilias including olfactophilia, podophilia and zoophilia in a sample of 20 institutionalised, male adolescents and young adults with Autistic disorder and borderline/mild mental retardation. All the case studies clearly highlight some of the ASD symptomology that can contribute to engaging in bestiality or zoophilia. Practical implications It is important that individuals with ASD have access to appropriate and timely sex education and that parents are supported by healthcare professionals to engage with their children with ASD in such interactions across the autism spectrum irrespective of the parent’s expectations. Originality/value To the author’s knowledge, this is the first review of ASD in relation to bestiality and zoophilia.