Q: What is the "research square" option when submitting to a journal under Springer?

Thank you for your question. Research square is a free public preprint repository. Springer Nature and Research Square are partnering to provide a free preprinting service to all authors. However, submitting your manuscript to Research Square is optional and does not have any impact on the journal’s editorial decisions.

A preprint is a version of a scientific manuscript posted on a public server before formal peer review. As soon as it’s posted the preprint will receive its own unique DOI and your preprint becomes a permanent part of the scientific record. Therefore, if any one plagiarises work prior to your manuscript being published in any journal it will be flagged against your submission in the preprint.

You may find these resources very helpful to understand preprints and is advantages.

• The role of preprints in research dissemination
• How researchers and journals can use preprints to make research freely accessible
• Preprints have enormous potential to revolutionize peer review and science

Hope this helps. All the best!