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Welcome to the new ASAPbio website! See what’s on the roadmap for 2025.

New to preprints and open peer review? Explore our resource library.

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A worldwide community of researchers

Promoting transparency and innovation in life science communication

ASAPbio is a scientist-led nonprofit organization with community members around the world. Take action with us to support scholarly communication reform through all scientific outputs.

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Why preprints?
ASAPbio Spotlight

FUNDED BY:

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Join us in making the life sciences more open

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Get involved in our worldwide community

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Explore our preprint resource libraries

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Partner with us to build open science

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Who we are

Scientist-led. Evidence-driven. Not for profit.

Founded in 2015, ASAPbio is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that promotes a more open publishing culture in the life sciences.

As our field experiences exponential growth in scientific output and a lengthening time-to-first-paper, we as scholars, scientists, and students have a significant opportunity to challenge the status quo of scholarly communication.

Will you join us in making the life sciences more open?

More about us
Our collaborations
ASAPbio graphic with red and black text. Arrows pointing right. Text: Making the life sciences more: Rigorous, Efficient, Collaborative, Open, Inclusive.

Our focus areas

Setting a more open standard for scholarly communication by promoting:

  • Preprints
  • Open peer review
  • Recognition & rewards
  • Community
Illustration of a laptop displaying a preprints icon with a document and cloud symbol. The background shows a red-tinted image of laboratory test tubes with a pipette.

Preprints are an innovative means of disseminating research — allowing researchers to share their work much faster and to receive earlier-stage feedback from a larger pool of peers.

Many other disciplines have used preprints successfully for years, but biology has lagged behind. Here’s how to change that:

Why preprints?
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Did you know? Peer review as it’s currently practiced is less than 50 years old. So why is it so often assumed to be a permanent — and unchangeable — fixture of the research process?

We believe in the power of peer critique, but we also believe it can and should be done better. Find out why we’re committed to public evaluation of research and how you can get involved.

Dive into peer review
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To change our system of scientific communication for the better, we have to examine the incentives behind it. Unfortunately, many research incentives may not be aligned with what’s best scientifically — and ASAPbio is working to change that.

Through partnerships, education, and communities of practice, we’re building an ecosystem in which researcher-led, open, rigorous research communication is more valued.

Learn more
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Since our founding in 2015, ASAPbio has thrived for one reason and one reason only: our incredible community. The administrative team behind ASAPbio may be small, but our reach is immense — and that’s all thanks to vibrant and dedicated community members all around the world.

If you care about transparency, rigor, and inclusivity in scientific communication, we have a place for you.

Join the ASAPbio community

Upcoming events

Talk preprints & open publishing with us

A promotional image for a community call, featuring Richard Sever. Text includes: OpenRxiv with Richard Sever on April 23, 2025, 5pm UTC. Background shows math equations. ASAPbio logo is at the bottom right.

OpenRxiv and a preprint progress update with Richard Sever
Date: 2025-04-23 Time: 9 pm - 10 pm UTC
Register Now
Webinar announcement with the title Tackling industrial scale research fraud: parallels with virus control, featuring Dorothy Bishop, scheduled for Wednesday, May 21, 5pm UTC. Banner includes May 2025 date and ASAPbio logo.

Tackling industrial scale research fraud: parallels with virus control
Date: 2025-05-21 Time: 9 pm - 10 pm UTC
Register Now
Replacing Academic Journals

Replacing Academic Journals
Date: 2025-07-23 Time: 9 pm - 10 pm UTC
Register Now
Announcement for a community call on Experiments in publishing with Arcadia, PubPub, and Octopus, featuring Megan Hochstrasser, Gabe Stein, and Alex Freeman, scheduled for Thursday, September 18th at 5pm UTC. Hosted by ASAPbio, September 2025.

Experiments in publishing with Arcadia, PubPub & Octopus
Date: 2025-09-18 Time: 9 pm - 10 pm UTC
Register Now

View our event archive for resources shared in previous events.

More than preprints

Our work centers on preprints, but we advocate for transparent communication across all scientific outputs, not only traditional publishing.

What we do

Preprint stories from our global community

Daniel Himmelstein
“I can’t risk delaying the release of my research.”

“Preprints let scientists set the release schedule for their research. I can’t risk having my research’s availability be delayed for years by the journal publication process.

By preprinting, we get our ideas out there, so others can build off of them. In return, we get valuable feedback and attention for our research.”

Daniel Himmelstein
Postdoc, University of Pennsylvania
Jeffrey Woodruff
"My preprint got me a faculty job."

“My preprint was the deciding factor when the UT Southwestern hiring committee was deciding whether to give me an interview or not. Once they saw my latest paper on bioRxiv, then they gave me the invitation. I’ll be starting as an Assistant Professor in January.”

Jeffrey Woodruff
Postdoc, MPI-CBG
Ashley Farley
"Knowledge now"

“We were able to receive instant feedback on our paper & learned of other projects/resources we had missed in our original analysis. It gave us breathing room before submitting the article for peer review. And the media reported on our preprint, which was very exciting and didn’t require waiting for publication.”

Ashley Farley
Librarian Gates Foundation & University of Washington
James Fraser
"Preprints move science along faster!"

“People started using our software, we got citations, and fellowship applications in a new area had credibility faster!”

James Fraser
Associate Professor, UCSF
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"Preprints give my research visibility"

“Preprinting my first work as senior author has enabled me to disseminate my research to the community and get valuable information about how well it is received. This enabled me to highlight to journals that there is a strong interest in my work and has made it easier to get past the editor’s desk.”

Hannes Maib
Research Fellow University of Sheffield
Antonio J. Giraldez
"Instant gratification of helping the community"

“The main aspect of the online submission at bioRxiv was the instant gratification of helping the community and getting feedback from our colleagues in other fields where our data is helpful, saving others precious time and even moving forward experiments in other systems, in addition to having our paper public in less than 48 hours without the disappointment or frustration that the review process sometimes carries.”

Antonio J. Giraldez
Chair and Professor of Genetics Yale University School of Medicine
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"Preprints allow me to share my research findings on time"

“The process to publish preprints is much easier and quicker. Preprints have allowed me to share my research findings much earlier compared to the traditional publication system. The papers I published as preprints are also viewed, read and downloaded more and receive more constructive reviews (for platforms that incorporate reviews).”

Aneth David
Lecturer University of Dar es Salaam