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10.26.2016 | SSP News & Releases

Scholarly Kitchen Webinar Preview: The Future of Preprints

October 26, 2016 – How are preprints affecting the future of scholarly publishing? How are the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences communities adopting this publishing trend? What impact does it have on researchers, publishers, librarians, and funders?  To search for the answers to these and other related questions The Scholarly Kitchen will present a webinar entitled The Future of Preprints, on Tuesday, November 8 from 12-1 p.m. Eastern Time.   A fantastic team of panelists will discuss current trends, technology, and impact of preprints on our traditional ways of disseminating research results. 

Registration for the event remains open.

David Crotty, Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press, will be moderating the session and will be joined on the panel by:

  • Richard Sever, Assistant Director, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
    Sever is the co-founder of the preprint server bioRxiv. He is also the executive editor for the Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives and Cold Spring Harbor Protocols journals.
  • Darla Henderson, Assistant Director, Open Access Programs, American Chemical Society
    Henderson is responsible for directing Open Access publishing strategy at ACS. She is currently co-leading the plan at ACS to organize a preprint server for the chemistry community, ChemRxiv.
  • Gregory J. Gordon, Managing Director, Social Science Research Network SSRN
    Gordon is the co-founder of SSRN, a leading Open Access multi-disciplinary online repository of scholarly research.

We asked Crotty to discuss the webinar and elaborate on where he saw the session heading.

Who is the intended audience for this seminar and why should they attend?
The webinar will be of interest to (1) researchers looking to learn more about using preprints to spread awareness of their work, (2) publishers looking to understand the impact that this increasingly common form of communication will have on journals, (3) librarians hoping to help researchers in their community take advantage of the opportunities that preprints offer, and (4) both academic research officers and representatives from research funders looking to learn more about how preprints can better spread the knowledge they are helping to create.

Who is on your panel and what do you hope they will bring to the discussion?
Richard Sever from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press will talk about biorXiv, the leading preprint server for the biology community. He will discuss the growth they are seeing, the lessons learned, and the benefits researchers are reporting.

Darla Henderson from the American Chemical Society will talk about their new ChemRxiv service, looking to build a service for the chemistry research community.

Gregory Gordon from the Social Science Research Network will give the perspective from the Social Sciences, where the use of preprints has been much longer established than that in STM communities. He will also talk about what SSRN’s acquisition by Elsevier means to the network. 

What can attendees expect from the seminar?
We are hoping to have an informative conversation about preprints across many different fields. The webinar is set up to have very short informative talks from each speaker, but to mostly be a panel discussion led by the moderator and questions from the audience. We hope to look at both the positive and the negative impacts of preprints and consider the balance between the two.

Why do you think this topic is important and timely?
Although the use of preprints dates back to at least the 1920s, the last year has seen a great increase in interest in how they can be used to speed the spread of knowledge. The researcher-led ASAPBio movement looks to bring the biomedical research world up to speed with the other research communities in their use of preprints, and funding agencies, such as the NIH, which recently issued a call for information on preprints, are very interested in exploring their use further.

Is there a particular topic you’re looking forward to seeing discussed?
I think the key question is whether preprints should be seen as a threat to traditional journal publishing or as a complementary enhancement. I think the varied experiences across different fields will also be key to understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

What do you hope attendees will take away from the seminar?
An appreciation of the good that preprints can do for research and society, as well as a clear understanding of the issues they may cause.

With just a few days to go, sign up for the webinar and do not miss this opportunity.

By Kuntan Dhanoya, Communications Committee

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