Do you routinely search for preprints as part of your research — perhaps in order to include grey literature in your systematic review? Most medical researchers will be familiar with MedRXiv and BioRXiv, which are two of the main repositories of medical and biological science preprints. While these repositories provide a wealth of preprint papers, enabling access to new research before it has been accepted for publication by journals, their search functionality is fairly basic and it can often be difficult to find all the relevant preprints on a specific topic. It is also difficult to do mass downloads of multiple search results.

However, all this is set to change, as the content of both MedRXiv and BioRXiv is going to be added to Embase (accessible via the OVID platform). Embase is a medical research database, and has the kind of advanced search functionality required to do comprehensive, precise literature searches. This means that you will be able to find relevant medical and biological sciences preprints as part of any literature search done on Embase.

This material will be added to Embase on 17th December, and after that date you will be able to search specifically for preprints by selecting the publication type ‘preprints,’ or searching in a specific preprints segment of Embase. Preprints will also be included in any auto-alerts you have set up.

The Medical Library runs regular training sessions on how to search Embase, and we will include information about this new content from MedRXiv and BioRXiv during these classes.