The current COVID-19 crisis is the most extreme example of the need for quick dissemination of science. The pandemic has brought two seemingly opposed ideas to a head: how does the need for speed intersect with the process of peer review? These past few months have pointed towards an already rapidly growing platform as an answer: bioRxiv.
bioRxiv is a preprint distribution service operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This free online archive allows authors to upload their work and make their findings available instantly. Since its founding in late 2013, bioRxiv has accepted over 75,000 papers. A search for "COVID-19" shows that while 0 results are returned for January 2020, 18 papers were made available by the end of February and by May 1st, that number grew to 540. Clearly, bioRxiv is the platform for the latest ideas
Total preprints posted to bioRxiv have grown significantly between November 2013 and November 2018. The number of preprints (y-axis) at each month (x-axis), with each subject-specific category depicted as a line in a different color. Inset: the overall number of preprints on bioRxiv in each month. Figure modified from Abdill and Blekhman (2019) eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.45133.001
Dr. Christopher (Casey) Brown is an associate professor in the Department of Genetics, and an enthusiastic supporter of bioRxiv. He has preprinted all of his papers since coming to Penn. One of the benefits of bioRxiv is the ability for readers to post comments. Brown has had overwhelmingly positive experiences with the discussions and believes they have improved his papers. He also shares that he has been invited to talks and been contacted by editors of traditional journals due to the exposure provided by preprints.
For those unfamiliar with preprint, it may be nerve-wracking to upload your work to a platform like bioRxiv. Maybe you're worried about being scooped? Brown assures that it's rare and indeed, an increasingly common attitude is that an earlier preprint takes precedent over a later peer reviewed publication. Additionally, a majority of traditional journals have no problem with preprint and even directly encourage upload to bioRxiv when a paper is submitted. Worried about uploading something imperfect? Any paper will contain some number of things that will be improved during the peer review process. bioRxiv provides a community of interested people to comment and discuss your work before publication .
Preprint can be especially beneficial to trainees. Papers that are preprinted have been shown to accumulate citations faster than papers that were not preprinted (Feldman, Lo, and Ammar (2018) arXiv:1805.05238). People can also become aware of your work more quickly, which may be particularly useful when interviewing for a job. While a preprint is not as good as a paper, it's a clear demonstration that you've worked towards a product for the public. While Brown applauds what bioRxiv has accomplished as a free and open preprint platform, he does not believe that it replaces traditional peer review. If you want to browse preprints, he suggests beginning with papers in your field; you can better evaluate the science, the methods and the statistics for yourself. When stepping outside of your comfort zone, you may want to rely on the reassurance provided by expert peer review. The platform can especially prove tricky for topics that capture the public imagination. In response to the surge of COVID-19 related papers and searches, bioRxiv published a banner with the reminder that "these are preliminary reports that have not been peer-reviewed. They should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or be reported in news media as established information." The banner highlights the need to read preprint papers with a certain level of skepticism and to treat preprint as a supplement to traditional publications. bioRxiv provides a unique mechanism for the spread of scientific information. Preprint allows rapid dissemination of ideas which is especially useful in extreme scenarios like the COVID-19 pandemic. Preprint also turns the tables on traditional scientific publishing by handing power back to the authors. The utility of bioRxiv is undeniable, and we're likely to continue to see a rise in the popularity of preprint platforms.