Reflections on Advancing Authorship: Preprints in the Time of COVID-19

On Friday, September 25, 2020, the Library hosted our first ever virtual Advancing Authorship event, Preprints in the Time of COVID-19.

We heard from Dr. John Inglis of Cold Spring Laboratory, founder of preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv. We also heard from MSK authors about their decision to publish their COVID-19 related research as preprints, including Dr. Elizabeth Robilotti, Dr. Lior Braunstein, and Dr. Marin Hultcrantz. Overall, we had 149 attendees, and an engaging Q&A session. 

Screen Shot from “Preprints in the Time of COVID-19.”

If you attended, but didn’t have a chance to fill out our post-event survey, there’s still time!

Questions? Have an idea for a future Advancing Authorship event? Please contact asklibrarian@mskcc.org

 

 

 

Advancing Authorship Webinar: Preprints in the Time of COVID-19

Join us for the next event in our Advancing Authorship MSK Library Series: Preprints in the Time of COVID-19. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, research has accelerated at an unprecedented pace and it has become more critical than ever for scientists to rapidly share their research results. Increasingly, researchers are relying on preprints to quickly communicate and share findings. In this session, we will explore the benefits and challenges of preprints. You’ll hear from MSK researchers who have published preprints on COVID-19, plus the Co-founder of two popular preprint servers, bioRxiv and medRxiv. 

Date: Friday, September 25
Time: 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Location: Zoom Webinar – REGISTER NOW

Speakers:

John Inglis, PhD – Dr Inglis is the Co-founder of bioRxiv and medRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s preprint services for the life and health sciences.  He is also the founding Executive Director and Publisher of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press in New York, a not-for-profit publisher of journals, books, and online media in molecular and cellular biology. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School with a PhD in immunology and was previously Assistant Editor of The Lancet, founding editor of Trends in Immunology, and managing editor of other Trends journals.  Follow John on Twitter @JohnRInglis.

Elizabeth Robilotti, MD, MPH, Dept. of Medicine, Associate Chief Medical Epidemiologist/Assistant Attending Infectious Diseases. Dr. Robilotti’s clinical practice directly influences her research in infection prevention and hospital epidemiology. She is focused on advancing the prevention of healthcare-associated infections  in high risk cancer patients through the application of molecular epidemiology. Through collaborations with the Microbiology Laboratory, Dr. Robilotti also works to refine new techniques  for more accurate and thorough surveillance and outbreak investigation. 

Lior Braunstein, MD, Dept. of Radiation Oncology, MSK – Board-certified radiation oncologist and scientist who specializes in treating breast cancer, prostate cancer, and primary and metastatic brain tumors. Dr. Braunstein has expertise in using advanced radiation therapy techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy, and stereotactic radiosurgery. His research is focused on molecular and biomarker-driven clinical trials, cancer epidemiology and outcomes analyses, and translational studies. As part of his clinical and scientific work, Dr. Braunstein serves on several national and international committees including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, and NRG Oncology, among others.

Malin Hultcrantz, MD, PhD, Dept. of Medicine, MSK – Hematologist with Clinical Expertise in Multiple Myeloma; Smoldering Myeloma; Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS); Related Plasma Cell Disorders

Disseminating and Sharing Research via Preprints

This is not my first post on preprints and I suspect it will not be my last. By definition, a preprint is a draft manuscript that is shared publicly (often via a preprint server) before it has been peer reviewed. For the researcher, there are several benefits for posting a preprint to include, early credit and visibility for the research done, and an opportunity to obtain feedback prior to submitting the manuscript to a journal for publication. In my professional readings this month, I’ve noted a couple of interesting articles about preprints.

Exciting News! A new preprint server is scheduled to go live on June 25 and is now accepting manuscripts. medRxiv, a collaboration between Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Yale University, and the BMJ will focus on the medical sciences. This resource was developed with a wealth of past experience from the founders of bioRxiv, who have been working on medRxiv since 2017 to deliver a platform that would share new research while safeguarding concerns of making non-peer reviewed clinical research available. View a short video (10:55 min) from other collaborators entitled, “Research Preprint Server Launches at Yale University”, to learn more about medRxiv.

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