91. Jessica Polka: Preprints, publishing peer reviews, and the joys of pipetting
Jan 26, 2024
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Jessica Polka, Executive Director of ASAPbio, discusses preprints, the functions of peer review, and the future of scientific publishing. Topics include the benefits of preprints, the role of journals, and individual actions for change in the scholarly community.
ASAPbio promotes preprints and open peer review in science community.
Challenges in preprint adoption include fear of competition and novelty perception.
Preprints offer transparency, quality control, and reviewer recognition, reshaping traditional publishing models.
Deep dives
Promoting Preprint Adoption and Open Peer Review
Asa bio, a non-profit organization, focuses on promoting preprint adoption and open peer review in the scientific community. They facilitate community champions in preprint review and encourage changes in scientific dissemination practices. By creating support systems for researchers willing to adopt new publishing methods, including preprints and open peer review, the organization aims to reshape how science is shared and evaluated.
Challenges in Preprint Acceptance in Biology
While awareness of preprints has increased, their ubiquitous use in biology remains limited due to concerns about novelty perception and competition among researchers. Institutional recognition and incentives for preprinting are still lacking, hindering widespread adoption. Issues like fear of scooping and perceived harm to publication prospects continue to impede comprehensive acceptance of preprints in the biological sciences.
Redefining Scientific Publishing with Preprints
Preprints offer a platform to rethink traditional publishing models by separating dissemination from journal acceptance. Initiatives like Review Commons and eLife's transparent review processes provide alternatives to the standard gatekeeping approach of journals. By enhancing transparency, quality control, and reviewer recognition, preprints pave the way for a more dynamic and nuanced evaluation system that considers varied indicators beyond traditional journal titles.
Impact of Submitting Peer Review Reports
Reviewers own the copyright of their peer review reports, allowing for them to post the content on preprints for public discussion. This freedom to publish reviews can lead to more constructive and transparent scholarly discussion, despite the need to balance the anonymity of reviewers with the potential for retribution or errors in reviews.
Shifting Publishing Paradigms with Preprints
Promoting the practice of public peer review comments on preprints challenges the current models in academia. By embracing transparency and openness, posting peer review comments publicly can lead to more accurate and fair assessments faster. This shift from traditional publishing towards a more open and nuanced environment mirrors initiatives in social networks like Twitter, where context cards help provide a more comprehensive understanding of controversial topics.
Jessica Polka is Executive Director of ASAPbio, a non-profit that promotes innovation and transparency in life science publishing. We talk about her work at ASAPbio, how she got into it, preprints, the many functions of peer review, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
Timestamps 0:00:00: The Jessica-Polka 0:01:25: What is ASAPbio? 0:03:53: Do we still need to convince people to use preprints in 2024? / Different uses for preprints 0:17:53: Are preprints really that beneficial? 0:24:05: Peer review's many functions and audiences 0:36:36: Do we still need journals? 0:41:27: Why should we publish peer review? 0:54:08: What can we do as individual scientists (other than hope for systemic change)? 0:56:55: How Jessica got involved with ASAPbio, and her day-to-day work 1:08:20: A book or paper more people should read 1:11:13: Something Jessica wishes she'd learnt sooner 1:13:18: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
References Abbott (1884). Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Cialdini (1984). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. Eckmann & Bandrowski (2023). PreprintMatch: A tool for preprint to publication detection shows global inequities in scientific publication. Plos One. Moran & Lennington (2013). The 12 Week Year: Get more Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months. Penfold & Polka (2020). Technical and social issues influencing the adoption of preprints in the life sciences. PLoS Genetics. Polka, Kiley, Konforti, Stern & Vale (2018). Publish peer reviews. Nature.
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