Research Guides: CHEM 416: Drug Development: Preprints

Preprints

Increasingly in a number of disiplines, researchers are publishing their work BEFORE peer review in publications called preprints (though in some disciplines they are also known as working papers or white papers). These are still scholarly publications but have not gone through review by experts before publication.

According to ASAPBio,

"What is a preprint?

A preprint is a scientific manuscript that is uploaded by the authors to a public server. The preprint contains data and methods, but has not yet been accepted by a journal. While some servers perform brief quality-control inspections (see details on the practices of individual servers), the author’s manuscript is typically posted online within a day or so without peer review and can be viewed (and possibly translated, reposted, or used in other ways, depending on the license) without charge by anyone in the world. Most preprint servers support versioning, or the posting of updated versions of your paper based upon feedback and/or new data. However, most servers also retain prior preprint versions which cannot typically be removed to preserve the scholarly record. Preprints allow scientists to directly control the dissemination of their work to the world-wide scientific community."

Preprints: A Finding Guide
Library guide to preprint servers from UMKC University Libraries
White papers, working papers, preprints, journal articles: What’s the difference?
Tip sheet from Journalist's Resource
What is a preprint? by ASAPbio
Basic information and infographics on preprints (especially in the life sciences)
How different are preprints from their published versions? 2 studies have some answers
News media outlets vary widely in how they cover preprint studies, new research finds

What Are Preprints? (videos)

Want a deeper dive into preprints or thinking about pubishing your own? Check out this in-depth video.

Post-publication peer review

O’Sullivan, L., Ma, L., & Doran, P. (2021). An Overview of Post-Publication Peer Review (No. 1). 3(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.29024/sar.26
The increasing demand for swift dissemination of research findings, combined with the drive towards transparency and open science has challenged the established approach to peer review in the journal publication system. Post-publication peer review (PPPR) takes place when an article is published before peer reviewers are sought, and takes a number of forms, including Letters to the Editor, blogs, social media and online platforms such as F1000 Research. Aside from the speed at which information can be shared with the research community, PPPR also has the potential advantage of facilitating a dynamic discussion between researchers and gaining insights from a wider range of contributors. While pre-publication peer review is still regarded as the ‘gold standard’, the merits of PPPR are increasingly being recognised. PPPR has the potential to enable dissemination, promote meaningful discussions and collaboration between researchers and be an efficient engine of open science. However, there remains some significant concerns that expedited publication without prior peer review may result in the dissemination of poor-quality data and findings from badly designed studies. Whilst this risk is also present in traditional prepublication peer review, it is heightened in its absence. This is particularly true where media can disseminate findings which have not yet been interrogated closely and distinction is not easily drawn between peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed findings. There is also the need for an integrated and accessible system so that both authors and readers can easily benefit from PPPR. This narrative literature review explores some of the platforms which facilitate PPPR in the field of academic publishing, including journals which carry out all of their peer review post-publication, Letters to the Editor/Commentaries and academic social networks.