CHATGPT PREPRINTS ON SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH NETWORK: AN ALTMETRIC STUDY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34256/Keywords:
Preprints, ChatGPT, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Social Science Research Network, Altmetric, PlumX MetricsAbstract
The present study aims to investigate the altmetric attention received by the ChatGPT preprints deposited at SSRN (Social Science Research Network) preprint server. The data for the present study was
collected from the SSRN preprint server. The study found 379 preprints on ChatGPT. The data was analysed using MS Excel. A positive correlation was observed between total usage and the citations received
by the ChatGPT preprints. This finding suggests that more widely used preprints are also more likely to be cited by other researchers. The study identified highly read, discussed, and cited preprints. It is significant
to find that a substantial proportion of ChatGPT-related preprints are either published or accepted for publication in journals or books. The results of this study shed light on the significance of preprints as a
means of rapid dissemination of early-stage research in the field of Generative Artificial Intelligence in general and ChatGPT in particular. The findings of this study shed light on the significance of preprints in
the academic and scientific community, particularly in the domain of Generative Artificial Intelligence. The study concludes by suggesting future research directions in the field.
Downloads
References
Altmetric.com (n.d.). What are altmetrics? https://www.altmetric.com/about-us/what-are-altmetrics/
Aswathi, U. & Vysakh, C. (2024). Library and Information Science (LIS) preprints and their social media presence: An altmetric study based on arXiv preprint repository. In Singh J.S. et al. (Eds.), Use of AI in Library and Education (pp. 57-63). Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab.
Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. (2021, January 31). What is a preprint? Is it the right publishing choice for you? https://library. cumc.columbia.edu/kb/what_is_ preprint
Bertin, M., & Atanassova, I. (2022). Preprint citation practice in PLOS. Scientometrics, 127 (12),6895–6912. https://doi.org/10.1007/s1119 2-022-04388-5
Açıkel, S.B., & Artık, A. (2023). The association between Altmetric, PlumX metrics and citation count of publications: A cross-sectional study among top child and adolescent psychiatry journals. Psychiatria Danubina, 35(2), 220–225. https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd. 2023.220
Clarivate (2023). Preprint Citation Index. https://webofscience.help.clarivate.com/en-us/ Content/pre-prints/pre-prints.htm
Elias, J., & Raja, A. (2023). Impact, Opportunity, and Challenges of Generative AI (pp. 1–48). Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India. https:// indiaai.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/docs/ generative-ai-report.pdf
Fleerackers, A., Shores, K., Chtena, N., & Alperin, J. P. (2024). Unreviewed science in the news: The evolution of preprint media coverage from 2014–2021. Quantitative Science Studies, 5(2), 297–316. https://doi.org/10.1162/ qss_a_00282
Karmakar, M., Banshal, S. K., & Singh, V. K. (2021). A large-scale comparison of coverage and mentions captured by the two altmetric aggregators: Altmetric.com and PlumX. Scientometrics, 126(5), 4465–4489. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11192-021-03941-y
Lim, W. M., Gunasekara, A., Pallant, J. L., Pallant, J. I., & Pechenkina, E. (2023). Generative AI and the future of education: Ragnarök or reformation? A paradoxical perspective from management educators. The International Journal of Management Education, 21(2), 100790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2023.10 0790
Lund, B. D., & Wang, T. (2023). Chatting about chatgpt: How may AI and GPT impact academia and libraries? Library Hi Tech News, 40(3), 26–29. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-01-2023-0009
Martineau, K. (2023, April 20) What is Generative AI? IBM blog. https://research.ibm.com/blog/ what-is-generative-AI
McCullough, R. (2019, July 2). PlumX Metrics API now available for Scopus subscribers. Scopus blog. https://blog.scopus.com/posts/plumx-metrics-api-now-available-for-scopus subscribers
McGillivray, B., & Astell, M. (2019). The relationship between usage and citations in an open access mega-journal. Scientometrics, 121(2), 817–838. https://doi.org/10.1007/s111 92-019-03228-3
Mikulić, I., Puharić, D., & Malički, M. (2025). Differences between nursing studies posted as preprints on medrxiv or ssrn and published in peer‐reviewed journals. International Nursing Review, 72(3), e70088. https://doi.org/10.1111/ inr.70088
Ni, R, & Waltman, L. (2023). To Preprint or Not to Preprint: Experience and Attitudes of Researchers Worldwide. In 27th International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (STI 2023). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.55835/6442f782b2 b55 80ba561406b
OpenAI (2022, November 30). Introducing ChatGPT [web log]. Retrieved from https://openai.com /blog/chatgpt#OpenAI
OpenAI (n.d.). GPT-4. https://openai.com/gpt-4
Ortega, J. L. (2018). The life cycle of altmetric impact: A longitudinal study of six metrics from plumx. Journal of Informetrics, 12(3), 579–589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.06.001
Otridge, J., Ogden, C. L., Bernstein, K. T., Knuth, M., Fishman, J., & Brooks, J. T. (2022). Publication and impact of preprints included in the first 100 editions of the cdc covid-19 science update: Content analysis. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 8(7), e35276. https://doi.org/ 10.2196/35276
Plum Analytics (2023). About Plumx Metrics. https://plumanalytics.com/learn/about-metrics/
Rahimi, F., & Talebi Bezmin Abadi, A. (2023). Chatgpt and publication ethics. Archives of Medical Research, 54(3), 272–274. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.arcmed.2023.03.004
Rajabi, A., Paranam, Z., Honarvar, M.R, Kolbadinejad, K., Abubakar, A., Amirkhanlou, A., & Mohammadi, M. (2022). Correlation between altmetric and scientometric indicators. Informology, 1(1), 27-42.
Raju, N. V., Adakawa, M. I., Harinarayana, N. S., & Chandrappa. (2023). Indian Covid-19 preprints submissions in bioRxiv and Medrxiv preprint servers. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023. 02.14.23285870
Sallam, M. (2023). ChatGPT utility in healthcare education, research, and practice: Systematic review on the promising perspectives and valid concerns. Healthcare, 11(6), 887. https:// doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060887
Shakeel, Y., Alchokr, R., Krüger, J., Leich, T., & Saake, G. (2022). Altmetrics and citation counts: An Empirical Analysis of the Computer Science Domain. Proceedings of the 22nd ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. https://doi.org/10.1145/3529372.3530939
Shrivastava, R., & Mahajan, P. (2022). Altmetrics and their relationship with Citation Counts: A case of journal articles in physics. Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, 72(4/5), 391–407. https://doi.org/10.1108/ GKMC-07-2021-0122
SSRN – Elsevier (2023). Generative AI special topic hub. https://www.ssrn.com/index.cfm/en/ AI-GPT-3/
SSRN–Elsevier (2025). Tomorrow´s research today. https://www.ssrn.com/ index.cfm/en/
Stahl, B. C., & Eke, D. (2024). The ethics of CHATGPT – exploring the ethical issues of an emerging technology. International Journal of Information Management, 74, 102700. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102700
Stokel-Walker, C. (2023). ChatGPT listed as author on research papers: Many scientists disapprove. Nature, 613(7945), 620–621. https://doi.org/ 10.1038/d41586-023-00107-z
Thelwall, M., & Wilson, P. (2015). Mendeley readership altmetrics for medical articles: An analysis of 45 fields. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(8), 1962–1972. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23501
Thorp, H. H. (2023). ChatGPT is fun, but not an author. Science, 379(6630), 313–313. https:// doi.org/10.1126/science.adg7879
Van Dis, E. A., Bollen, J., Zuidema, W., van Rooij, R., & Bockting, C. L. (2023). Chatgpt: Five priorities for research. Nature, 614(7947), 224–226.https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00288 -7
Wen, J., & Wang, W. (2023). The future of ChatGPT in academic research and publishing: A commentary for clinical and translational medicine. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 13(3), e1207. https://doi.org/10.1002/ ctm2.1207
Ye, Y. E., Na, J.C., & Liu, M. (2025). Examining scholarly communication on X (Twitter): Insights from participants tweeting COVID-19 and ChatGPT publications. Scientometrics, 130(2), 1045–1076. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11192-025-05246-w
Zissette, S., Gautam, A., Krumholz, H. M., Ross, J. S., & Wallach, J. D. (2024). Altmetric attention scores and citations of published research with or without preprints. JAMA Network Open, 7(7), e2424732. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24732
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Indian Library Association
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
