Projects encouraging feedback on preprints

A sneak peak inside the ASAPbio Crowd Preprint Review initiative

This blog post was co-written by Jonny Coates and 2024 ASAPbio Fellows; Josie, Jade & Lamis It’s peer review week and to celebrate, we are releasing a preview of one of the 2024 ASAPbio Fellows projects focused on investigating the ASAPbio Crowd Preprint Review activities.  ASAPbio Crowd Preprint Review The theme of peer review week…

A crowdsourced kind peer review guide for ECRs in Ecology and Evolution

This is a post written by Gracielle Higino about her community project that was funded in 2023. I was tired of hearing students and colleagues sharing their bad experiences with reviewers. I was tired of working really hard to submit a paper for publication and receiving inconsiderate reviews and editorial decisions. We needed a change…

Scientists sat around a table reviewing preprints with snacks inlcuding apples

Apply for support in converting your journal club to a preprint review club

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…

Composite image of individual smaller screens displaying different 2023 fellows waving to the camera

2023: Another successful year for the ASAPbio Fellows

In 2023 we progressed 38 people through the third installment of the ASAPbio Fellows program. Together this group participated in cohort calls to provide fundamental knowledge and training around preprints in addition to multiple projects, which we celebrate here.  Awareness of preprints in Africa The adoption of preprints across the globe has not been equitable,…

Poster advertising a community call with a photo of Lonni Besancon

The trials and tribulations of post publication peer review; Recap from November Community Call

In our November 2023 community call, we heard from Lonni Besancon (Assistant Professor, Linkoping University) about his work exposing fraudulent and unreliable science.  Lonni began with an overview of how he started researching reliability issues and highlighted that this is not his primary role; indeed, it is a large issue in the current system that…

A presenter delivering slides projected onto a screen in front of an audience

Building a technological foundation for preprint review

The practice of preprinting in the life sciences has grown rapidly. In addition to accelerating scientific publication, preprinting also has the potential to open new avenues of communication among researchers. For example, preprint peer review offers tremendous potential for changing the culture of scientific assessment, broadening participation, and enhancing the robustness of scholarship. While only…

grid of cartoon faces representing crowd review participants

Crowd preprint review is back! Sign up to participate in one of several groups led by ASAPbio Fellows 

Interested in honing your peer review skills while providing valuable feedback to preprint authors? Then join one of our preprint review crowds!  Following our two previous cycles of preprint review activities, we are thrilled to announce that ASAPbio will host more crowd preprint review activities in 2023. This year our crowd preprint review activities will…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Logos of participants in the ASAPbio preprint reviewer recruitment network

Preprint reviews & comments enabled journals to find dozens of new reviewers & editors

In our 6-month trial of the Preprint Reviewer Recruitment Network, participating journals made 124 total additions to their reviewer databases; they also extended 28 invitations to review and 62 invitations to advisory or editorial boards. We plan to extend the program into a second phase. Many early-career researchers want to get involved with journal peer…