Preprints.org, the non-for-profit preprint server, today announced its new Popular Preprints of the Decade Award in celebration of the platform’s 10th anniversary. Running throughout 2026, this community-driven initiative recognizes the most widely read, shared, and discussed preprints from the past ten years. Community voting opens in September.

Since its launch in May 2016, Preprints.org has grown to become a global platform. It now hosts over 126,000 preprints by more than 429,000 researchers, gaining 25 million views globally. This growth reflects the vital role of preprints in accelerating open access and open science over the past decade.

Preprints.org aims to increase early research dissemination across the scholarly community and the wider public. Today, preprints hosted on the platform are discoverable across nine academic databases, including the Web of Science Preprint Citation Index, Europe PMC, Google Scholar, Scilit, Dimensions, and OpenAlex.

To support researchers further in the research lifecycle, Preprints.org has also introduced the Preprints Friendly Journals initiative. This project aims to connect the speed of preprints with the rigor of journal-based peer review, encouraging researchers towards formal publication.

Mr. Alistair Freeland, chief operating officer at MDPI and first member of the Preprints.org team, said: “We launched Preprints.org because science shouldn't wait behind closed doors. Research becomes stronger, more rigorous, and more impactful when it's shared early and openly discussed by the scholarly community. We envision preprints becoming as natural to the research workflow as data collection or peer review, helping ensure knowledge is accessible, transparent, and strengthened through collective insight.”

Dr. Ioana Craciun, MDPI’s scientific content lead and advisor for Preprints.org, said: "Over the past decade, Preprints.org has become a vibrant global community, connecting researchers, accelerating science, and helping scientific discoveries reach the scientific community faster. As the platform has grown, so has its responsibility. As a scientific advisor, I view research integrity as non-negotiable. Preprints.org has consistently worked to uphold and strengthen adherence to research integrity standards.”

About Preprints.org

Preprints.org is a multidisciplinary platform supported by Open Access publisher MDPI. This preprint service is dedicated to making early versions of research outputs permanently available and citable.

About MDPI

Headquartered in Switzerland, MDPI is a fully Open Access publisher with a portfolio of more than 480 journals across all scientific disciplines. To date, MDPI has published the works of over 4.2 million researchers, collaborating with an extensive network of academic institutions and scientific societies worldwide. Above all, MDPI is committed to ensuring that high-quality research is freely accessible to readers across the globe.

For media inquiries, please contact: externalaffairs.eu@mdpi.com