Dear Irum Abbasi

Research Square (https://www.researchsquare.com ) is one of the many open access platforms of preprints available nowadays. They are nowadays owned by Springer. Elsevier is linked to SSRN, Preprint.org is linked to MDPI, Wiley works closely with Authorea etc.

There are vivid discussions on the pros and cons of using preprints and it boils down to personal preference, I guess.

However, because of the tight link between certain preprint platforms and publishers some researchers experience problems (unjustified claims of plagiarism etc.) when the submission to the initial journal didn’t result in publication and they subsequently move to another publisher. Some examples dealing with this issue can be found here on RG:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_remove_the_preprint_from_researchgate

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_do_I_remove_a_full_text_article

https://www.researchgate.net/post/My_manuscript_has_been_rejected_by_a_journal_because_of_the_presence_of_a_preprint

So, if you want to make your latest research visible immediately you can consider the option to create a preprint but keep in mind that it can cause problems when the initial submission of your manuscript is not successful, and you need to search for another publisher.

Best regards.

Here are some of the discussions mentioned by Rob Keller :

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is-it-always-advisable-to-upload-a-Preprint/1

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What-are-the-disadvantages-of-preprints-upload/1

https://www.researchgate.net/post/When_is_the_appropriate_moment_to_upload_a_preprint/1

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_Preprint_of_research_articles_safe/1

And one of the discussions on Research Square:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_this_research_square_doing/1

Thank you so much for your detailed answer