Identification and categorization of iterative preprints in the life sciences

Preprints, manuscripts posted online prior to journal-organized peer-review, are an alternative to the traditional, slow, expensive, and inequitable journal publication system. They enable earlier sharing of research outcomes and can even be used to obtain early feedback on work in progress. We aim to identify such alternative uses of preprints, including works-in-progress that are deposited and updated as preprints (iterative preprints). We rely first on a computational approach to identify alternative preprints that we then qualitatively assess. We aim to communicate our approach and results to the community as an iterative preprint itself. In this version, we present our computational approach and initial exploratory results as we seek feedback on our methodology.