"If you want to be one year behind, don’t read bioRxiv” – Jeff LeekWelcome to PREreview! On PREreview you can collaboratively write reviews of preprints. This project was born in April 2017 as a collaboration eetween Samantha Hindle and Daniela Saderi, scientists and ASAPbio Ambassadors, with help from Josh Nicholson, at the time working for Authorea. ASAPbio (Accelerating 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 Wellcome Trust to continue to grow our community. Reed more here and stay tuned for some exciting 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  collaboratively 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.  

Our PledgeIn the interest of fostering an open and  welcoming environment we, as contributors and maintainers, pledge to making participation to this project and 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.  

We are proud to introduce you to the members of our Advisory Committee. These fantastic people have been unofficially supporting us throughout the launch of PREreview, and we are honored that they have agreed to continue their support in a more official fashion. We look forward to building and improving PREreview together.

At the top write: Title of the preprint, authors, date of submission, version number, preprint server, and digital object identifier (DOI)Start a new document and invite to your preprint journal club others  who want to collaboratively write the preprint review – they will have to sign up on PREreview to be able to edit. Below are a short list of questions that you can have journal club attendants answer (PREreview short participant worksheet, example here), followed by more detailed guidelines on how to structure a more formal and complete peer review (PREreview peer review, example here). Answering the first set of questions will be faster and still povide useful feedback to the authors. However, if the main purpose of the preprint journal club is to train early-career researchers on how to write a peer review, recommend you write the full review as if you were a reviewer for a journal.  You can use the comments from the first one to construct the preprint peer review. After you are done writing your your PREreview, you can click on "Document" (top left), "Publish" so that your preprint review will be public and will be assigned a DOI that you can use to advertise your review on social media, email to the authors, and post on the comment section on the server that hosts the preprint you chose for your JC. Additionally with a DOI, your preprint review will be citable! If you got this far, GREAT JOB! Thank you for supporting open science and helping science move forward faster!

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

Where you can find preprints:There are various preprint repositories (see below) and also website platforms where you can search all/most of the preprint repositories, including Prepubmed, Publons, The Winnower, and Academic Karma (please let us know at contact@prereview.org or leave a comment on this page if we missed any). You can search the Research Preprint Servers List to find a preprint server in your field.Below is a list of the most common preprint repositories that post findings in the biological sciences:AgriXiv: a preprint repository for agriculture and allied sciencesarXiv q-bio: a preprint repository for quantitative biology operated by the Cornell University Library. This repository includes manuscripts in the following categories: Biomolecules, Cell Behavior, Genomics, Molecular Networks, Neurons and Cognition, Subcellular Processes, Populations and Evolution, Tissues and Organs, Quantitative Methods, and Other Quantitative BiologybioRxiv: a preprint repository for the biological sciences operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This repository includes manuscripts in the following areas: Animal behavior and Cognition, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Bioinformatics, Biophysics, Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Clinical Trials, Developmental Biology. Ecology, Epidemiology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Immunology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, Paleontology, Pathology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Physiology, Plant Biology, Scientific Communication and Education, Synthetic Biology, Systems Biology, and ZoologyOSF PREPRINTS: a preprint server that hosts preprints from a broad range of disciplines, including the Life Sciences, and Medicine and Health Sciences  PeerJ Preprints: a preprint repository for the biology and computer sciencesPreprints.org: a preprint repository that posts manuscripts covering many areas of the biology and biomedical science (and other sciences, arts and humanities), including Behavioral Sciences, Biology, Life Sciences, and Medicine and PharmacologyWellcome Open Research: a preprint repository for research funded by the Wellcome Trust mainly in areas of the biological sciences, population health, applied research, humanities and social scienceINARxiv: the preprint server for Indonesia powered by OSF Preprints hosting preprints from a broad range of disciplines, including the Life Sciences, and Medicine and Health SciencesEarthArXiv: the preprint server for Earth Sciences powered by OSF Preprints

In the summer of 2017, we conducted a survey to assess scientists' opinions on the value and potential barriers related to reading and reviewing preprints at journal clubs. In this short article we present and discuss the results of the survey as well as how these results helped us shape our approach at PREreview.

              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(s), 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(s) 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.