Duplicated or cloned preprints: the lack of across-the-board ethical regulation of preprint servers may risk leading to citation-abusive and curriculum vitae-enhancing practices

Preprints have become an attractive form of publication in recent years since they allow academics to advance the speed of publication by being able to publish almost instantaneously an often crude form of work, or research in progress, while offering a quantitative substitute to showcase early research efforts. Despite this positive set of aspects, outside of the intense debate of the role that preprints played in COVID-19 research, very little is being discussed in academic circles whether this purpose and privilege can be abused. This paper tempers over-enthusiastic preprint proponents by cautioning researchers who may seek to overly amplify the visibility of their research efforts using preprints, specifically by abusing multiple preprint servers to clone the same work as many times as possible, taking advantage of the absence of stringent preprint ethics, moderation and verification policies, to gain greater exposure, readership and citations of their work. At the heart of this exercise lies the question: What is the limit to the number of copies of work, disseminated via preprints, that is allowed or acceptable? Several cases are provided to illustrate these arguments and risks.