During the pandemic, research communication and progress has accelerated through the massively increased posting of preprints. The increased use of preprints is a positive development, however, most preprints still take the form of traditional research papers posted shortly before or in parallel to their submission to a journal. As a result, preprints generally appear 4 or 5 months prior to journal publication, but relatively late in the lifespan of a research project.
We believe that we should take a further step towards accelerating research by encouraging the use of preprints to share ongoing or preliminary work where preprint authors can receive feedback from other researchers, well in advance of journal submission. As part of the ‘Preprints in Progress’ project in collaboration with ICOR (Incentivizing Collaborative and Open Research), we also seek to gather information on the type of outputs reported via early preprints.
To learn how best to encourage researchers to share preprints reporting early or ongoing work, we are seeking community input on the motivations, any potential concerns, and the type of feedback preprint authors wish to receive when posting their preprint in advance of an eventual journal submission. Please take this brief (less than 5 minutes) survey to share your views, and feel free to share it with others in your community. The survey will be open until March 18.
We are also interested in collaborating with researchers who have preprinted early work or are interested in doing so in the future, so that we can showcase their work and learn from their experience. We invite researchers interested in collaborating with us or in hearing more about our activities to also express their interest via the survey.
We will use the survey results to inform ASAPbio activities to encourage the sharing of early or ongoing research via preprints. For any questions about the survey, please contact Iratxe Puebla (iratxe.puebla@asapbio.org). Thanks in advance for your participation.
