Journal policy change: Genome Research will consider preprints

We have been alerted to a change in the Genome Research author guidelines, which now read:

The journal only accepts papers that present original research that has not been published previously. Conference presentations or posting unrefereed manuscripts on not-for-profit community preprint servers will not be considered prior publication. Authors are responsible for updating the archived preprint with the journal reference (including DOI), and a link to the published article on the Genome Research website upon publication. [emphasis added]

We look forward to discussing preprints targeted for Genome Research at Haldane’s Sieve.

5 thoughts on “Journal policy change: Genome Research will consider preprints

  1. This is great news.

    One of my colleagues and I had a productive discussion about this topic with the editors. My impression is that there was some caution about accepting preprints because of a lack of familiarity and experience with this system, rather than any active animosity toward preprints, which echoes my experience in talking to other scientists. This is worth keeping in mind as we try to spread the good word: preprint systems may be valued and well-understood in our social media echo chambers, but there is still a lot of education and advocacy to do before this approach will gain wider acceptance.

    I applaud the willingness of GR consider community feedback on this issue and ultimately change their policy in a way that benefits the field.

  2. Fantastic news: kudos to everyone who (gently) pushed for GR to consider changing their policy, and to the GR editors for taking a step in the right direction.

    Oh, and I also echo everything Bryan just said so eloquently. Things are changing (e.g. thanks to Joe’s efforts, arXiv is becoming a fairly uncontroversial option in the Broad human genomics space), but we have a way to go before preprints are widely accepted.

  3. Great news! Given the pace of change in genomics it is encouraging to see GR take this step. Allowing preprints will allow methods [and techniques] to be tested and adopted early, which is critical to maximizing the impact of genomics work. I agree that we still have a long way to go, but in general I am encouraged by my conversations with many people who increasing see preprints as a viable step in the process of publishing.

  4. Pingback: Genome Research Journal Changes its Preprint Policy « Homologus

  5. Pingback: Haldane’s Sieve sifts through 2012 | Haldane's Sieve

Leave a reply to cooplab Cancel reply