At the January 2020 workshop, we aim to build on significant recent progress by discussing best (or “good enough”) practices for metadata and processes that would build trust in preprints and support their discoverability, reuse and interoperability as first-class research outputs.
From previously proposed recommendations and suggestions from participants, we propose the group develops practical recommendations for advancing work on the following elements, and a roadmap for implementing them:
- Minimally useful metadata standards to convey basic information about preprints (e.g. authors, funders, preprint licensing, versioning, full-text content, etc)
- Adherence to and transparency of screening, moderation and withdrawal processes (e.g. scientific and biomedical reporting guidelines, clinical trial registration, competing interests declaration, funding acknowledgement, etc)
- Indicating preprint status – recommendations for how to transparently and accurately convey:
- A preprint’s review status (from ‘not peer-reviewed’ to otherwise)
- Availability of supporting data and materials
- Preprint-level usage (views, downloads and citations by version)
- Citations, archiving, sustainability, and adoption: recommendations or ideas for:
- Citation standards (DOIs, versioning, etc)
- Archiving
- Sustainability of free open-access preprint platforms
- Encouraging adoption of preprints
A designated note-taker will record the discussions. You are welcome to view and comment on the discussion notes, openly available from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Offi9tUGe9K0XaBnWaRcyt2jyoh2e0BdzFcCsEoV1vk/edit?usp=sharing (short link: tinyurl.com/bioPreprints2020).
Schedule
All times in UTC.
Monday January 20, 2020
9:00am | Opening Remarks and Information |
9:15am | Updates and introductions Session lead: Maria Levchenko, EMBL-EBI and Europe PMC 9:15am | Preprint platform updates 10:15am | Stakeholder introductions |
10:30am | ASAPbio Preprint Platform Directory report Naomi Penfold, ASAPbio |
10:45am | Morning refreshment break |
11:00am | Session 1: Minimally useful metadata standards for preprints Session lead: Jo McEntyre, EMBL-EBI and Europe PMC What is/should be captured in preprint metadata? How are/could these data be captured from authors or elsewhere? How are/could these metadata be made openly available to third parties? How do/could we leverage existing standards and infrastructure? 11:10am | Introductory talks Michael Parkin, Europe PMC Tom Demeranville, ORCID Dario Taraborelli, CZI 11:40am | Breakout discussions |
1:00pm | Lunch |
2:00pm | Session 1: Minimally useful metadata standards for preprints (continued) 2:00pm | Reporting back & whole group discussion |
2:50pm | Session 2: Adherence to and transparency of screening, moderation and withdrawal processes Session lead: Sowmya Swaminathan, Nature Research, Springer Nature Which scholarly publications practices are important to uphold at the preprinting stage? Screening: Which author-dependent practices should be checked before posting, and by whom? How transparent could/should screening processes be? How could their outcomes be communicated externally? Moderation & Withdrawal: What can be moderated after posting, and how? In what circumstances should preprints be withdrawn or removed? What would the impact of removal be on downstream aggregators? How transparent could/should moderation and withdrawal processes be? How could their outcomes be communicated externally? 3:00pm | Introductory talks Iratxe Puebla, PLOS and representing COPE Theo Bloom, BMJ and MedRxiv Sowmya Swaminathan, Nature Research, Springer Nature 3:30pm | Breakout discussions |
4:00pm | Afternoon refreshment break |
4:15pm | Session 2: Adherence to and transparency of screening, moderation and withdrawal processes (continued) 4:15pm | Breakout discussions (continued) 5:00pm | Reporting back & whole group discussion |
5:50pm | Day one closing |
6:00pm | Close |
7:00pm | Workshop dinner |
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
9:00am | Day two opening |
9:15am | Session 3: Indicating preprint status Session lead: Richard Sever, bioRxiv & medRxiv Choose one of the following topics for breakout discussions: how to transparently and accurately convey: (1) A preprint’s review status (from ‘not peer-reviewed’ to otherwise) (2) Availability of supporting data and materials (3) Preprint-level usage (views, downloads and citations by version) |
10:30am | Morning refreshment break |
10:45am | Session 3: Indicating preprint status (continued) Reporting back & whole group discussion |
11:45am | Session 4: Citations, archiving, sustainability, and adoption Session lead: Oya Rieger, Ithaka S+R Choose one of the following topics for breakout discussions: (1) Citation standards (2) Archiving and sustainability of free open-access preprint platforms (3) Encouraging adoption of preprints |
1:00pm | Lunch |
2:00pm | Session 4: Citations, archiving, sustainability, and adoption (continued) Reporting back & whole group discussion |
3:00pm | Review the recommendations and roadmap Session lead: Jessica Polka, ASAPbio Individual work time to review the draft recommendations and roadmap |
3:45pm | Afternoon refreshment break |
4:00pm | Review the recommendations and roadmap (continued) Whole group discussion to review the draft roadmap and consider next actions following this workshop |
5:15pm | Workshop closing |
5:30pm | Close |
6:30pm | Informal pub dinner |