Updates and announcements from ASAPbio
May 10, 2017 update: ASAPbio has announced a four-month suspension of the RFA process to reassess the preprint ecosystem and community needs. ASAPbio is releasing a Request for Applications for the development of a Central Service (provisional name) for preprints in the life sciences issued by ASAPbio. This Request is open to all prospective bidders, and…
At the ASAPbio Funders’ Workshop, representatives from a number of funding agencies asked ASAPbio to “develop a proposal describing the governance, infrastructure and standards desired for a preprint service that represents the views of the broadest number of stakeholders.” Following iterative discussions about the technical and organizational aspects of such a project, ASAPbio is now…
Following increased interest in may scientific societies’ positions on the use of preprints in NIH grant applications, several societies have released statements providing their perspectives. ASCB The ASCB leadership, after careful consideration, believes preprints should be able to be included in grant applications and referenced in NIH progress reports, with the proper references so they…
The report from the August 30th ASAPbio Technical Workshop has been published on January 16, 2017 in Rio Journal. Along with a summary of the day’s discussions (which are also available to view online), the report contains a the authors’ synthesis of key principles and recommendations for preprint technology development (found in Table 3):
Dear subscribers, We need your help for an urgent action this week. The NIH released a RFI (request for information) on “including preprints and interim research products in the NIH applications and reports.” ASAPbio, and many individual scientists, responded with arguments in favor of providing scientists with the option, not requirement, of citing preprints in NIH applications/reports as public evidence…
1/19/2017 update: We will close the signature drive at 9pm EST on Sunday, 1/22/2017. Summary The NIH released a RFI (request for information) on “including preprints and interim research products in the NIH applications and reports.” ASAPbio, and many individual scientists, responded with arguments in favor of providing scientists with the option, not requirement, of…
At the ASAPbio Funders’ Workshop in May of 2016, representatives of funding agencies requested that ASAPbio “develop a proposal describing the governance, infrastructure and standards desired for a preprint service that represents the views of the broadest number of stakeholders.” Toward this end, we proposed a model for a “Central Service” (CS) that would aggregate…
Dear ASAPbio subscriber, Tell the NIH what you think about preprints The NIH has recently released a request for information (RFI) on the use of preprints and other interim research products. We encourage all interested parties to respond to the RFI using the submission website by the deadline of December 9th (extended from November 29th).…
Note: the RFI is now closed. The NIH has announced a policy that encourages the use of preprints. The NIH has recently released a request for information (RFI) on the use of preprints and other interim research products. We encourage all interested parties to respond to the RFI using the submission website by the deadline…
Dear ASAPbio subscriber, Here’s what’s new: We held a successful Technical Workshop to discuss the feasibility of creating a central preprint service. All the notes are online, and you can also view the archived video stream. We’re working on a request for information to identify potential suppliers, their implementation strategies, and their predicted costs and…
Dear ASAPbio subscriber, It’s been an exciting few months at ASAPbio! Here’s what’s happened: The report of our February meeting at HHMI was published in Science, and Ron Vale and Tony Hyman recently published an article about priority of discovery & preprints in eLife. ASAPbio was awarded grants totalling $400,000 in provisional funding from the…
This announcement was originally posted on the Simons Foundation website. On June 20, four foundations announced their support for ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in Biology), a scientist-driven effort with a mission to promote the use of preprints in the life sciences. The combined total provisional funding — from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the…
Tony Hyman and ASAPbio founder Ron Vale have just published a Point of View in eLife building on their earlier blog post. ABSTRACT: The job of a scientist is to make a discovery and then communicate this new knowledge to others. For a scientist to be successful, he or she needs to be able to claim credit…
The following is a message from funding agency representatives who attended our recent Funders’ Workshop. As research funders who attended the ASAPbio Funder’s Workshop for Preprints held at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on May 23-24, 2016, we wish to provide a brief summary of the meeting. This follows the initial Funder’s Perspective drawn…
A group of attendees of ASAPbio have published a commentary in the “Policy Forum” section of the journal Science on May 20, 2016. Written by scientists and representatives from journals and funding agencies, the paper serves as a meeting report and summary of opinions on the use of preprints in the life sciences. Correction: This paper contains…
Dear ASAPbio subscriber, Last week, we announced the ASAPbio Funders’ Workshop, a small meeting to be held at NIH on May 24th to coordinate support among private and public funding agencies for preprints in biology. Representatives from existing preprint servers will attend, as will some junior and senior scientists. To ensure that the voice of…
On May 24th, 2016, representatives of funding agencies and existing preprint servers as well as junior and senior scientists will meet at the NIH to coordinate their efforts in providing a preprint service for the biology community. The attendees of this small workshop are listed below. — ASAPbio organizers ASAPbio Funders’ Workshop attendees Needhi Bhalla UC Santa Cruz…
We are writing to inform you about some developments since the first ASAPbio meeting at the HHMI in February. This meeting, which was attended by a diverse group of individuals representing many institutions and followed by a sizable online audience, had an intended goal of learning whether there is increased interest and greater support for…
Thanks for subscribing to ASAPbio’s newsletter! As part of the followup to last month’s productive meeting, ASAPbio organizers and attendees have been working to spread discussions about preprints to the broader community. Recent articles at Wired, NYTimes, and The Economist have certainly moved the needle in this regard! Please help keep the conversation going by…
Harlan Krumholz, Harold H. Hines Jr. Professor of Medicine at Yale School of Medicine and ASAPbio attendee, is the author of a recent article in NPR entitled “Academic Medical Centers Get An F In Sharing Research Results.” You can watch his 5-minute talk at ASAPbio on preprints and data sharing here.