Author Country of Origin and Attention on Open Science Platforms: Evidence from COVID-19 Preprints.

This article examines how author country of origin influences attention to COVID-19 preprints on open-access platforms medRxiv.org and bioRxiv.org during the early months of the pandemic. Controlling for factors such as article quality, topic, author reputation, institution rank, and eventual journal impact, the study finds that preprints with authors affiliated with Chinese institutions receive significantly less attention—measured by downloads and online mentions—compared to those with U.S.-based authors or authors from other countries. This disparity persists even among closely matched "topic twin" preprints and is not reflected in citation counts of the subsequently published articles, suggesting that biases on preprint platforms differ from expert peer review outcomes. The findings indicate that under conditions of uncertainty and limited expertise, audiences on open platforms may rely on country of origin and social media promotion as proxies for quality, potentially exacerbating geographic biases in the diffusion of scientific knowledge.