"If you want to be one year behind, don’t read bioRxiv” – Jeff LeekWelcome to PREreview! On PREreview youcan collaboratively write reviews of preprints. This project was born in April 2017 as a collaboration between Samantha Hindle and Daniela Saderi, scientists and ASAPbio Ambassadors, with help from Josh Nicholson at Authorea. ASAPbio (Acelerating Science And Publication in biology) is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the word about preprints to accelerate scientific discovery.As of October 2018, we are proud to have become an official project fiscally sponsored by Code for Science and Society. Learn more in this blog post.We are also proud to announce that we have received funding from the Sloan Foundation and the Wellocome Trust to continue to grow our community. Reed more here and stay tuned for some upcoming updates! Our Mission PREreview seeks to diversify peer review in the academic community by crowdsourcing pre-publication feedback to improve the quality of published scientific output, and to train early-career researchers (ECRs) in how to review others' scientific work. We want to facilitate a cultural shift in which every scientist posts, reads, and engages with preprints as standard practice in scholarly publishing. We see PREreview as a hub to support and nurture the growth of a community that openly exchanges timely, constructive feedback on emerging scientific outputs. We believe that by empowering ECRs through peer review training programs, thereby increasing the diversity of researchers involved in the peer review process, PREreview will help establish a healthier and more sustainable culture around research dissemination and evaluation.  

              REQUEST A LIVE-STREAMED PREreview JOURNAL CLUBAt PREreview, we want to take preprint journal clubs to the next level. Live-streamed PREreview journal clubs (LivePREJCs) are hosted via online community calls, allowing anyone with internet or phone-in capabilities to join the discussion. This format promotes inclusivity by following a structure that provides a means to join the discussion silently in written form, and vocally. You can request our help to organize a live-streamed preprint journal club by clicking on the link above and filling the form. Here is a list of current and past LivePREJCs.Live-streamed PREreview journal clubs are:Inclusive: anyone, anywhere in the world with a internet or phone connection can joinInformative: you can learn more about the topic by listening to/reading the comments of other researchers in the field and even the authors themselves (if invited)Efficient: if preprint authors are present, they receive feedback in real time. Also, we restrict the live journal clubs to 1 hour to keep the feedback focused and efficientCollaborative: the format encourages contributions from all participants regardless of input style preference, i.e. both vocal and silent writing (etherpadding)Fun: even though the discussions are kept professional and centered around providing constructive feedback to the preprint authors, they are a fun way to meet other people interested in the field.How to get started:Choose a preprint you wish to discuss at a LivePREJC (find out more about what preprints are and where to find them).Find a few other scientists or researchers, preferably at different career levels and from different institutions, who would like to participate in the LivePREJC. Our team will help you recruit more participants if you cannot find them on your own.Fill out this form to formally request a LivePREJC and our logistic support.If you are not the preprint author, you can contact the corresponding author(s) and let them know about the LivePREJC. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, please let us know and we will do it on your behalf. You can also choose not to include the author in the discussion. What to expect during the call:LivePREJCs are usually hosted by one or two members of the PREreview team: we will ensure that the conversation around the preprint runs smoothly and stays on time (1 hour); they will take notes and encourage others to take notes on a collaborative etherpad (see below); importantly, they will set the tone for a productive and respectful conversation according to the PREreview code-of-conduct.Preprint authors interested in having their preprint discussed on a LivePREJC, will have the option to be present (recommended). We advise authors to find 5-10 participants (not all the participants need to be experts in the field). Our team will help coordinate the call and, if the authors request it, help recruit more researchers in the field by advertising the call on social media using the #LivePREJC hashtag and any other hashtag related to the research field of the preprint discussed.Once the preprint authors have identified the participants, we will send out a short email with instructions on how to join the LivePREJC and with a copy of the preprint. Participants will be encouraged to read the preprint before the LivePREJC, to keep the discussion short and focused.Authors will be asked to remain in ‘listening mode’ – except when asked a question by participants - until the last 10 minutes reserved for this discussion. This will encourage participants to express their constructive feedback freely and stimulate a productive discussion.Participants will be given the opportunity to give feedback both vocally (with notes taken by one of the PREreview team) and in written form (via collaborative note-taking on a public etherpad that we will set up for each LivePREJC). Here is an example of an etherpad template that will be used for the LivePREJCs.

Hello everyone! In this post we will detail our beta testing phase, hopefully clarifying what it means to be a beta tester for PREreview and guiding you on how to best contribute. Thank you for taking the time to help us in our mission to make journal clubs worth any researchers' time!

The following guidelines and email templates are meant to help you start a PREreview journal club at your institution. The first two email templates are for you to send to your department to invite colleagues to your journal club; the last one is for you to send to the authors to let them know you have reviewed their preprint on PREreview. Please let us know if these materials helped you, or suggest changes by emailing us at contact@prereview.org. Thank you! 

Our PledgeIn the interest of fostering an open and  welcoming environment we, as contributors and maintainers, pledge to making participation in our project and our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.We believe it is our duty as scientists at any level of our career to contribute to scientific evaluation in the form of peer review. PREreview provides a space for any researcher, independently of their career level, to provide feedback to emerging scientific output. We strive to build and support a community of PREreviewers who provide constructive feedback, because we are convinced that one can be honest AND respectful at the same time.  

This is a step-by-step guide on how to create your own Preprint Journal Club on PREreview.