This dataset contains records about preprint submissions during the COVID-19 global lockdowns in 2020, as well as the same period for the 3 previous years. It amounts a total of 502,762 research articles deposited in 5 macovjor preprint repositories (arXiv, medRxiv, bioRxiv, PsyArXiv and SocArXiv) during the months of January to May from 2017 to 2020. Author information is completed with gender identification. The dataset comprises 4 CSV files: Articles: links each article ID (the URL) to the source repository and date of publication. Authors: links each author with an article ID, and includes additional information such as position, rank and gender. Categories: links each article ID to one or more categories/subcategories. Text: provides the title and abstract for each article ID.

This work has been supported by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid) under the Multiannual Agreement with UC3M in the line of "Fostering Young Doctors Research" (CONCIERGE-CM-UC3M), and in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation.