January 22, 2021: Is It Time to Embrace Preprints? A Conversation About the First 18 Months of medRxiv (Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM; Joseph Ross, MD, MHS)

Speakers

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM
Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Yale University

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS
Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Yale University

Topic

Is It Time to Embrace Preprints? A Conversation About the First 18 Months of medRxiv

Keywords

Preprints; Preprint server; medRxiv; Open science; Health science research; Research transparency; Preliminary research reports

Key Points

  • A preprint is a research manuscript yet to be certified by peer review and accepted for publication by a journal. A preprint server, like medRxiv, is an online platform dedicated to the distribution of preprints.

  • MedRxiv is publisher-neutral. It is operated by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and managed in partnership with BMJ and Yale University.

  • Server submission requirements for authors help to mitigate concerns about preprints. These include clear posting criteria (ie, original research articles only), an established screening process, and a caution to users of preprints, including researchers, journalists, and the public, that states: “Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been peer-reviewed. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behaviors and should not be reported in news media as established information.”

  • Not allowed are commentaries, editorials, opinion pieces or essays, letters to editors, narrative reviews, medical-legal research, and case reports.

Discussion Themes

The concept of “living data” or “living analyses” has grown out of the pandemic crisis and could stay on as a feature of scientific communication.

How do you think the public conversation around a preprint may positively or negatively impact the peer review process itself?

How are academic institutions acknowledging preprints in the sense of “evidence of productivity” (as for academic promotion)?

Preprints can serve as a teaching opportunity not only for reminding scientists to be discerning readers of reported science, but also for reminding the media.

Learn more about medRxiv.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

 

Grand Rounds January 22: Is It Time to Embrace Preprints? A Conversation About the First 18 Months of medRxiv

Speakers:

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM
Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Yale University

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS
Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Yale University

Topic: Is It Time to Embrace Preprints? A Conversation About the First 18 Months of medRxiv
Date: Friday, January 22, 2021, 1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

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July 12, 2019: medRxiv: A Paradigm Shift in Disseminating Clinical and Public Health Research (Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM, Joseph Ross, MD, MHS)

Speakers

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM
Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Yale University

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS
Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health
Yale University

Topic

medRxiv: A Paradigm Shift in Disseminating Clinical and Public Health Research

Keywords

Open science; Clinical research dissemination; Preprints; medRxiv preprint server

Key Points

  • medRxiv (med archive) is a server for health science preprints. It is a free service to the research community, managed in partnership with BMJ and Yale.
  • Benefits of preprints in medicine include early sharing of new information; enabling less “publishable” studies to be more readily available; and facilitating replication and reproducibility studies.
  • medRxiv submissions require:
    • Following ICMJE guidance, including author names, contact info, affiliation
    • Funding and competing interests statements
    • Statement of IRB or ethics committee approval
    • Study registration (ClinicalTrials.gov or other ICMJE approved registry for trials, PROSPERO for reviews) or link to protocol
    • Data sharing availability statement
    • EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines checklists
  • The medRxiv preprint server urges caution in using and reporting preprints, and includes language explaining that preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been peer-reviewed, should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behaviors, and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Discussion Themes

Preprint servers do not replace, but rather complement, peer review.

Preprint has the potential for being a vehicle for high-quality but “negative” results. If we teach students that a negative result is also a good result, providing an avenue for us to walk-the-talk more easily via open communication seems largely positive despite the limitations.

Read more about medRxiv.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1, @jsross119, @hmkyale

September 29, 2017: Preprints: What, Why Not, and How

Speaker

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD
Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
Director, Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation
Yale-New Haven Health System
Founder, Hugo

Topic

Preprints: What, Why Not, and How

Keywords

Pragmatic clinical trial; Clinical research; Yale; Preprints; YODA; Peer Review

Key Points

  • The goal of preprint servers is the easy and rapid sharing of information with other scientists. They have the potential to enhance collaboration, reduce waste, and increase transparency.
  • Preprint servers are meant to complement, not replace, peer-reviewed journals.
  • Only 29% of clinical trials results are reported within 2 years of completion, so it is critical to establish a global norm for reporting timeframes.
  • Reporting biases exist, favoring the publication of clinical trials results with positive outcomes.
  • Yale’s YODA Project created MedArXiv as a preprint service, aimed to co-exist with peer-reviewed journals, for researchers to share and receive feedback on their work.

Discussion Themes

Researchers are in a race to help people, and preprints can create a dialogue and opportunity for community feedback long before a journal would publish a paper.

One challenge to preprint servers is the existing business model for traditional journal publishing. A suggestion would be branded preprint servers hosted by these journals, keeping in mind sustainability.

There has to be some screening process for content posted to servers, but sharing results via preprints is not much different than sharing through a presentation at a scientific conference. 

The preprint process helps to eliminate researchers’ fears of being undermined or having someone else publish results sooner simply because of the speed of a particular peer-reviewed journal.

For More Information

To learn more about Yale’s work in preprints, visit http://bit.ly/2x3ClVn or follow @hmkyale on Twitter #pctGR

Tags

@Collaboratory1, @hmkyale, @YaleMed, @YODAProject, #Preprints, #clinicalresearch, #PragmaticTrials, #pctGR