Preprints are complete, open access manuscripts that have not yet undergone editorial peer review. Recently, the magazine Science nominated preprints as a 2017 breakthrough in the life sciences.
While they have been a central way of communication in the fields of physics and mathematics for over two decades, only in the past four years – largely thank to the work of the non-profit organization ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in Biology) – preprints begun a rapid increase in adoption in the life sciences.
How will preprints shape the landscape of scholarly communication moving forward? What are the advantages in favor of and the major obstacles that prevent scientists from publishing scientific outputs as preprints?
Daniela Saderi, neuroscientist and co-founder of the free preprint review platform PREreview, will lead a discussion around some of these issues, focusing on how innovation around preprints could help early-career researchers gain the expertise and confidence to actively contribute to scholarly evaluation in the context of a diverse open community.
Both Daniela and Pablo Ranea, a member of the organizing committee, are active ASAPbio Ambassador. You too can join this group and contribute to promoting and encouraging the productive use of preprints in the life sciences.