Researchers uncertain about citation legitimacy and academic credibility of rejected papers available on preprint servers

Researchers writing papers face a credibility dilemma when wanting to cite rejected work that's publicly available on OpenReview or similar platforms—they're unsure if citing it will damage their paper's academic standing, confuse readers about the work's status, or violate citation norms. Current solutions (asking advisors, checking journal guidelines) are inconsistent and time-consuming, leaving researchers anxious about making the wrong choice that could affect peer review outcomes.