Preprint stickers on a table with a post-it note that says "I screen preprints"

Open for feedback: #bioPreprints2020 meeting report

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…

Improving peer review through research

By Victoria Yan This post originally appeared at ReimagineReview, a registry of innovative peer review projects. Here on ReimagineReview, we envision the constant improvement of peer review through experimentation and research. With concurrent research and outcome reporting, the projects we list have the potential to demonstrate whether their approach has improved peer review. The collective…

Newsletter volume 23: Hello from Iratxe, COVID-19 preprint resources, increased visibility for journal review & preprint policies

Dear all, May has been a busy month for ASAPbio, we have launched new resources related to preprints, and continued to engage with many colleagues in conversations about transparency in peer review and open science; details below. Hello from Iratxe Earlier this month I joined ASAPbio as Associate Director. I am thrilled to be part of…

Transpose data reused by Clarivate to increase awareness of journal peer review and preprinting policies

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…

Do preprints work with double blind review?

A review process is considered “double blind” if neither authors nor reviewers are aware of one another’s identities. Though it is relatively rare in the life sciences, it is more prevalent in social science and the humanities. Double blind review is one approach to mitigating biases in review, which can range from a bias against…

ASAPbio newsletter vol 21: COVID-19 webinar, new board members, open access RFI

Webinar: Rapid communication of COVID-19 research 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 talks will…

ASAPbio newsletter vol 20 – #bioPreprints2020, Review Commons updates, and more meeting reports

Dear subscribers, I hope 2020 is treating you well! Since our last update, we’ve been working on a variety of meetings and conference sessions. Here are the highlights. #bioPreprints2020: Building trust in preprints On January 20 and 21, 2020, over 30 representatives from preprint servers, publishers, funders, and organizations working on standards, indexing, and metadata…

Reimagining review in a world of preprints

At the 2019 ASCB|EMBO cell biology meeting, we convened researchers, funders, publishers, and advocates in a panel discussion focused on making use of peer review on preprints.  The use of preprints in the biomedical sciences has been increasing exponentially in recent years as it is becoming a common practice in research dissemination.  Free from journal brands, preprints enable innovations…

[CLOSED] Job posting: advance the use of preprints and transparent review in the life sciences as Associate Director at ASAPbio

This posting is closed. Join us to help make scholarly communication in the life sciences more open and efficient by catalyzing cultural change around the use of preprints, transparent review, and other advances in scholarly communication! About ASAPbio We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that got its start in 2015 as a grassroots group of researchers…

Community call recap: revealing quality of peer review through increased transparency

The theme of Peer Review week in 2019 was quality in peer review. However, the quality of most reviews are obscured to researchers because traditional peer review processes are conducted behind closed doors. We identified five active approaches to improving peer review quality through increased transparency and brought practitioners of each together in a community…

ASAPbio newsletter vol 18 – Review Commons is coming soon!

Dear subscribers, This month, we share upcoming opportunities to learn, discuss, and influence the future of preprints and transparent peer review. Coming soon: Review Commons We’ve partnered with EMBO to launch a new journal-independent platform that peer-reviews research papers before submission to a journal. Review Commons will provide authors with a Refereed Preprint (using bioRxiv’s…

EMBO and ASAPbio to launch a pre-journal portable review platform

A multi-publisher partnership aims to streamline scientific publishing by producing refereed preprints  Heidelberg and San Francisco—September 30, 2019—EMBO Press and ASAPbio have partnered to create Review Commons, a platform that peer-reviews research manuscripts in the life sciences before submission to a journal.   Papers submitted to Review Commons, which will be launched in December 2019,…

ASAPbio newsletter vol 17 – Revealing quality in peer review & considering influencers of preprint success

Dear subscribers,  This month, we share upcoming opportunities to learn, discuss and influence the future of preprints and transparent peer review. Peer review week event: ReimagineReview community call on revealing quality in peer review through increased transparency The theme of this year’s Peer Review Week, “quality in peer review,” should resonate with anyone—author, referee, or…

ReimagineReview community call: Revealing quality in peer review through increased transparency

September 20, 9am PDT, 12pm EDT, 6pm CEST The theme of this year’s Peer Review Week, “quality in peer review,” should resonate with anyone—author, referee, or reader—invested in the process of formal publication. But how can those without a direct window into the peer review process be assured of its quality, both the entire body…

ASAPbio newsletter vol 16 – Bias in peer review & new research to understand preprint adoption

Dear subscribers,  This month, we present opportunities to discuss bias in peer review and share our latest research activities about preprints. We hope you’ll join us at upcoming events and discussions. Discuss bias in peer review with ReimagineReview Scientific peer review is ideally based solely on the merit of the research; in the real world,…

Launching Transpose, a database of journal policies on preprinting & peer review

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of Transpose (@TransposeSCI), a database of journal peer review, co-reviewing, and preprint policies relating to media coverage, licensing, versions, and citation. These policies can often be difficult to find, unclear, or undefined. Our hope is to bring them to light so that authors, readers, reviewers, and other stakeholders…