Preprinting not only accelerates the dissemination of science, but also enables early feedback from a broad community. Therefore, it’s no surprise that there are many innovative projects offering feedback, commentary, and peer reviews on preprints. Such feedback can range from the informal (tweets, comments, annotations, or a simple endorsement) to the formal (an editor-organized process…
In late January, ASAPbio, in collaboration with EMBL-EBI and Ithaka S+R, hosted the #bioPreprints2020 workshop to improve the discoverability, reuse, and interoperability of preprints in the life and biomedical sciences. After the meeting, attendees formed working groups to establish draft recommendations for preprint metadata, withdrawal and removal definitions, data availability statements, versioning, and surfacing review…
This survey is closed and preliminary results are available here. While the use of preprints has increased over the last years, preprint awareness and attitudes vary widely across research communities and among stakeholders in research communication. Stakeholders interact with preprints to varying degrees, via different channels and for different purposes; a better understanding of what…
Join us to help make scholarly communication in the life sciences more open and efficient by developing best practices for the use of preprints in the media. The position The Project Coordinator is a 6-month temporary role. The Project Coordinator will complete tasks such as: Coordinate online working groups composed of researchers, journalists, and technologists…
On the topic of preprints, “how do I find them?” remains one of the most common questions. While several search tools already index preprints, many require researchers to look outside of their normal workflows. On June 9, the National Library of Medicine announced a pilot to include NIH-funded preprints in PubMed and PMC beginning this…
When we first launched our Preprint FAQ in 2016, the biology preprint landscape looked dramatically different from its present form, both in terms of its usage and prominence among researchers as well as its integration into scholarly communication workflows. While we’ve made periodic updates, the whole package was due for a refresh. We’ve been honored…
Transpose is a community database of journal policies on peer review and preprinting developed with major contributions from ASAPbio. Launched almost a year ago after a sprint at the 2018 Scholarly Communications Institute, Transpose includes information on whether peer review is blinded, transparency of reviewer identities and reports, co-reviewing policies, versions of papers that can…
In efforts to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, research related to SARS-CoV-2 as well as the public health and societal ramifications of COVID-19 is taking place faster and on a larger scale than ever before. Researchers are making use of preprints to freely and quickly disseminate COVID-19 research, and a significant proportion of research related…
Today, in tandem with the release of a preprint entitled “A systematic examination of preprint platforms for use in the medical and biomedical sciences setting,” we’re happy to present a searchable directory of preprint platforms relevant to life sciences, biomedical, and clinical research. You can use this directory to identify a preprint server that fits…
The use of preprints has increased rapidly over the last few years, especially in biomedical and life sciences. We’ve been tracking changes in the preprint landscape over time and maintain a page dedicated to this topic. Here are some of the most notable trends over the last year. Adoption and sources The rate of life…
Predatory journals, as defined by COPE in a thoughtful discussion document, are those that operate for profit in a “deceptive or fraudulent way and without any regard for quality assurance.” These journals undermine trust in science by enabling the dissemination of flawed work under false banners of quality. Recently, ICMJE and COPE made recommendations to…
This event has passed. Watch recording here. Tuesday, March 31, 12pm-1:30pm ET (9am PT, 5pm BST, 6pm CEST – see in your time zone) Join ASAPbio and the Knowledge Futures Group for a conversation about new ways of sharing scientific information relevant to the coronavirus pandemic via preprints, rapid peer review, and more. Individual…
Alice Meadows, Director of Community Engagement, and Jill O’Neill, Director of Content, NISO Preprints have come a long way in the past few years. The granddaddy of digital preprint platforms is, of course, arXiv (launched in 1991). But although it was joined by a handful of others over the years, including SSRN way back in…
In conversations about preprints in the UK, the question is often raised: ‘are preprints included in REF?’ In brief: yes. This is most likely to be applicable for any research manuscript that is prepared close to the REF2021 submission deadline, and is deemed to be amongst your best work in the current cycle, but which…
The Center for Scientific Review (CSR), National Institute of Health are working to improve awareness of the NIH policy (NOT-OD-17-050) that encourages citation of preprints in grant applications and reports. In response to feedback submitted by ASAPbio on May 30, Kristin Kramer, Ph.D., at the Office of Communications for the CSR, stated (June 11, 2019):…
Those who have been following ASAPbio for a while know that journal policies on preprinting are always in flux. As adoption of preprints—and editors’ comfort with them—increase, these changes are typically positive. However, one potential downside to a rapidly-evolving policy landscape is the potential difficulty authors may face in finding their footing, especially when preprint…
We share a listing of 15 different products or services in use or in development for sharing preprints online.
By Jessica Polka (ASAPbio), Donna Okubo (PLOS), and Tim Vollmer (Creative Commons) Today we’re happy to share two new documents that we hope will aid researchers in their decision to share early work as preprints. Even while the practice of publishing preprints continues to grow, we know from our community outreach that there are still…
A July 24 article by Tom Sheldon of the Science Media Centre raised concerns about the use of preprints in the media. Soon after, nine eLife ambassadors (some of which are also ASAPbio ambassadors) responded in a preprint entitled “Maintaining confidence in the reporting of scientific outputs.” Many of the same sentiments are echoed the following…
By Olavo B. Amaral Institute of Medical Biochemistry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil As the preprint movement gains traction in biology, the time is ripe to revisit some aspects of scientific publication that we view as fundamental – first and foremost of which is the peer review process itself. Common concerns about preprints…