bioRxiv preprints can now be submitted directly to leading research journals

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) today announced that authors of manuscripts posted on its preprint server bioRxiv can now submit their papers directly to several leading research journals, avoiding the need for reloading files and re-entering information at the journal's website.

The first journals to participate in this initiative are Biophysical Journal, eLife, The EMBO Journal, EMBO Molecular Medicine, EMBO Reports, G3:Genes/Genomes/Genetics, Genetics, Genome Research, and Molecular Systems Biology. Direct submission to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America will also soon be available.

Dr. John Inglis, Executive Director and Publisher of CSHL Press and co-founder of bioRxiv with Dr. Richard Sever, says: "We look forward to extending bioRxiv's relationships with additional journals in ways that increase the value of the server to the scientific community."

Since its launch in November 2013, bioRxiv has received nearly 3000 manuscripts, covering the full spectrum of biomedical science. The manuscript submission rate doubled between May and December 2015. Posting to the service and reading its contents costs nothing. Manuscripts are not peer-reviewed before posting, but their authors often receive community feedback, through onsite commenting, social media, or direct email, and 30% of authors post revised versions of their papers. Most manuscripts submitted to bioRxiv are eventually published in peer-reviewed journals.

"We established bioRxiv to help scientists distribute and share their work more rapidly and widely," says Inglis, "and we are delighted that so many of them find the service valuable, as both authors and readers. But peer-reviewed journals remain important arbiters of reliability and significance in the publication of research results, and the willingness of journals to consider and publish manuscripts previously distributed in preprint form is essential in this evolution of life science communication. By encouraging the seamless transition of a preprint to a submitted manuscript, the editors and publishers of these first 10 collaborating journals are providing authors with a valuable service."

Dr. Bernd Pulverer, Head of Scientific Publication at EMBO, says: "Our four journals have always encouraged preprint posting and direct submission from bioRxiv will reduce the burden of journal submission. Our journals have dropped format restrictions and reduced information requirements to further ease the first submission process."

Dr. Les Loew, Editor-in-Chief of Biophysical Journal (BJ), comments: "BJ has welcomed manuscripts posted on bioRxiv and we are now delighted to offer this optional direct conduit. The 'marriage' will continue to assure rigor in peer review, while emphasizing BJ's commitment to the rapid open dissemination of scientific research."