Updates and announcements from ASAPbio

Fostering local preprint communities: announcing the ASAPbio Local Hubs

ASAPbio hosts a global community and we regularly organize online events and activities for audiences across the world. At the same time, we recognize that in-person interactions can be invaluable for developing new relationships and the deeper engagement needed for change in science communication. To support and amplify the work that community members do in…

NASA TOPS logo with "let's talk open science" next to it

ASAPbio joins NASA TOPS

ASAPbio is thrilled to join the Transform to Open Science (TOPS) initiative, a NASA project “designed to rapidly transform agencies, organizations, and communities to an inclusive culture of open science.” TOPS is also part of US White House’s Year of Open Science.  Quoting the TOPS website, the initiative’s four goals are to: How ASAPbio is…

Do you have a preprint in progress and want constructive feedback? Submit it for discussion at the ASAPbio-PREreview live-streamed preprint journal clubs

Preprints provide a great avenue for researchers to get feedback on their work from the community. This type of community feedback is particularly valuable when gathered on early preprints, that is, on manuscripts that are still work-in-progress, prior to their submission for journal publication. The feedback from the community can allow authors to get a…

Recommendations for managing preprints in generalist and institutional repositories

As adoption of preprints has grown over recent years, researchers have made use of a variety of platforms to share the early drafts of their manuscripts. In addition to the existing preprint servers, there are also many institutional or generalist repositories where authors can deposit their manuscripts – Zenodo, for example, lists over 6,000 records…

ASAPbio crowd preprint review 2.0 – highlights from our 2022 activities to collaboratively develop public preprint reviews

Last year we ran a trial where we experimented with translating the crowd review model pioneered by the journal Synlett to preprints, and we coordinated activities to develop public reviews on cell biology preprints. The activities resulted in sign up by over 100 researchers, and in 14 public preprint reviews developed through comments contributed by…

The ASAPbio Fellows program: an interview with 2022 Fellow Ruchika Bajaj

ASAPbio wants to support community members who want to learn more about preprints and share information and resources about preprints with their own communities. To empower our community members to be preprint advocates, we started a Fellows program in 2020, a dedicated set of activities around preprints that allows participants to learn more about preprints,…

Recognizing Preprint Peer Review

Today, we’re excited to announce a meeting co-organized with HHMI and EMBO to promote recognition for open dialog on preprints. Learn more and register to watch the livestream on December 1-2 here. Greater recognition for preprint review would build on important momentum: in April, EMBO announced that refereed preprints would fulfill eligibility requirements for its…

ASAPbio’s response to the OSTP Nelson memo

We applaud the recent US White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum on ensuring free, immediate, and equitable access to federally funded research. The updated policies requiring public access to peer-reviewed publications and research data will bring many benefits to the US and the global research community. We thank the OSTP for…

Want to drive conversations about preprints in your own language? Reuse & translate preprint resources

ASAPbio aims to provide researchers with information and resources that can help them make productive use of preprints. Our Preprint Resource Center hosts materials such as videos, the Preprint FAQ and a wonderful set of preprint infographics developed by ASAPbio Fellows, which you can find at asapbio.org/preprint-info#infographics. We want to ensure that communities with different…

Three takeaways from our July 19 Publish Your Reviews event

View translations on the SciELO blog: Español | Português What are the benefits of open peer reviews on preprints, and why should researchers consider publishing their journal-invited reviews alongside preprints? To answer these questions, ASAPbio Fellows Bianca Trovò, Nicolás Hinrichs, Saeed Shafiei Sabet, and Susana Henriques organized an interactive conversation about the recently-launched Publish Your…

Supporting public preprint review through collaborative reviews – an update on ASAPbio’s crowd preprint review

At ASAPbio we believe that there are many benefits to public preprint feedback: comments that can help authors improve their work, opportunities for early career researchers to develop review skills, and further context for non-specialized readers, among others. Since last year, we have been supporting this important activity by coordinating public reviews on preprints developed…

Welcoming four new members to the ASAPbio Board of Directors

We’re thrilled to announce four new members of the ASAPbio Board of Directors: Gautam Dey, Carole Lee, Kleber Neves and Ludo Waltman. These appointments allow the Board to incorporate new perspectives from researchers in a wide range of disciplines including meta-research and also broaden the geographical representation in our Board.  Gautam Dey  orcid.org/0000-0003-1416-6223 Gautam is…

Banner announcing Review Commons policy update

New policy: Review Commons makes preprint review fully transparent

In a major step toward promoting preprint peer review as a means of increasing transparency and efficiency in scientific publishing, Review Commons is updating its policy: as of 1 June 2022, peer reviews and the authors’ response will be posted by Review Commons to bioRxiv or medRxiv when authors transfer their refereed preprint to the first affiliate journal. By Thomas…

Crowd preprint review banner - faces of

Become a crowd preprint reviewer and support public feedback on preprints

Following our successful trial last year, we are thrilled to announce that ASAPbio will pursue crowd preprint review activities in 2022. Join us in supporting public feedback on preprints by becoming a crowd preprint reviewer! We are expanding the activities to include different disciplines. In addition, we are delighted to collaborate with SciELO Preprints to…