Dear subscribers,
The preprint ecosystem is growing rapidly. The CZI/bioRxiv partnership will fuel the expansion of the leading preprint server in the life sciences, and many other servers and platforms with varying degrees of disciplinary overlap exist or are planned (arXiv, PeerJ Preprints, preprints.org, OSF Preprints, ChemRxiv, SSRN, SciELO, PsyArxiv, EngArXiv, SocArXiv, Authorea, F1000Research, etc). Funding agencies are enacting policies supporting preprints, such as those developed by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council, while agencies like the NIH have gone a step further and developed guidelines for selecting a preprint server.
ASAPbio is now working to identify any gaps/opportunities in the preprint ecosystem, which will help to inform the revision of ASAPbio’s plans before the close of our RFA suspension.
Toward this end, we’re hosting a one-day meeting in Cambridge, MA on Wednesday, July 19th. The attendees—including funders, researchers, and leaders of preprint services—will discuss new developments, opportunities for collaboration, and perspectives on standards and best practices. A tentative agenda and attendee list can be found here. The meeting will be live-streamed via our YouTube channel, and we invite you to participate live by tweeting your questions and comments with #ASAPbio.
Meanwhile, we’re also working on understanding stakeholder attitudes toward preprint licensing, which is becoming an important topic as journals and funders begin to release policies in the area. We’ve established a preprint licensing task force that will study funder, journal, and researcher needs, provide informative resources, and potentially recommend licenses that benefit the public good.
Best,
Jessica Polka
Director, ASAPbio
