Traditional journal clubs are present in most labs and departments bringing together early career researchers to discuss and review a chosen article. These groups effectively perform peer review but often don’t share the comments with the authors. This year ASAPbio is launching a fund to support current journal clubs in performing (and sharing) peer reviews of preprints. We envisage this project as a proof-of-principle that we can hopefully use as an example for further integration with journals and preprint peer review services.
Application details
ASAPbio welcomes applications for support to convert existing journal clubs into preprint review clubs (local versions of crowd preprint review). Support is provided in the form of a gift card to cover refreshments for journal club attendees. It is expected that each club will produce 4 reviews of preprints that will be publicly posted to the platform of choice (e.g. PREreview or as a comment on the server). Applications are open to departmental journal clubs and individual lab journal clubs.
ASAPbio will provide converted journal clubs with a guide on how to run a crowd preprint review club and are available to deliver a session about preprints to the journal clubs. Converted journal clubs will be highlighted on the ASAPbio website on a map with links to the relevant departments.
Eligibility & agreement
Applicants:
- Agree to abide by the ASAPbio Code of Conduct in conducting project activities.
- Must be part of organising a journal club and have a verifiable profile on the internet
- Agree to update ASAPbio on the publishing of each review and to be contacted for a potential survey of the experience or contribute to a blog post at the end of the year
- Agree to upload at least 4 crowd reviews over the course of the year. Reviews may be uploaded to PREreview, added as a comment to the preprint article or shared in a different manner so long as the reviews are permanently publicly accessible.
Expenses:
- Funds will be provided by ASAPbio staff in the form of a gift card (of the applicants choosing) to the value of $200
- Please note that the gift card must be appropriate for refreshments and that Amazon or similar services will not be accepted. Examples of appropriate locations include local supermarkets or deli’s
Applications will be processed on a rolling basis. If you have any questions please get in touch (jonny.coates@asapbio.org)
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is the application open to journal clubs around the world? Yes, applications are accepted from any country
- Who chooses the preprints to review? The journal club is free to choose any preprint they wish. There is no external invovlement in the selection of preprints, writing or posting of the reviews
- Do the authors of posted reviews need to be identifiable or can reviews be shared anonymously? We do not dicate how you share your reviews. We encourage open and transparent reviews, which would include adding the names of authors to the posted reviews. However, this is not essential and if a journal club would prefer to post reviews anonymously then that is acceptable. The only requirement is that ASAPbio are able to receive notification of the reviews posted for tracking purposes.
- Where can I post the preprint reviews? We do not dicate where you should post the reviews, so long as they are public. This could be as a comment on the preprint, using hypothesis.is or a review platform such as PREreview.
- What is the format of the reviews? Again, the exact format is at the discretion of the journal club. It is anticipated that the journal clubs will be behave as a local form of our crowd preprint review; individual members may only comment on small sections of a preprint but together, the journal club produces a comprehensive review, akin to a journal-organised peer review. ASAPbio can provide a template for the final review if required.
