Exploring Academic Publishing for Peer Review Week

September 21-25 was Peer Review Week, an annual celebration of peer review, for which the 2020 theme was trust. In this list, Technology Networks highlights several important aspects of the scientific publication process to mark the event.

Academic publishing: The basics

Do you feel comfortable in your understanding of the academic publishing process? There are so many journals out there, and the modes in which they operate can be perplexing. Not to worry, in this How To Guide, and eBook, we've broken down the process to help provide you with an overview of what to expect.

Preprints in scientific publication

Scientific publication has followed a specific infrastructure for many years, but the emergence of preprints has shaken things. What do we mean by a preprint paper? How do preprints fit in with the scientific publication process, and what are the benefits and challenges associated with sharing your research as a preprint? In this article, we explore the key foundations of preprint publications. 

Technology Networks also spoke to Samantha Hindle, the content lead for the preprint server bioRxiv, to learn how this service is managed, and why biology and medical sciences are, perhaps, a little late to the party when it comes to adopting preprints.

Teach Me in 10 – Open access science with Norman Van Rhijn

What exactly do we mean by "open access" when it comes to scientific research? What are the benefits and drawbacks to publishing open access, not only for the researcher sharing their work, but for the scientific community? How have attitudes towards publishing open access changed during the COVID-19 global pandemic? In this Teach Me in 10 video, these questions and more are addressed by Norman Van Rhijn in less than 10 minutes.

Is research quality being compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic?

A question on the tip of many people's tongues. In the context of a global pandemic, data needs to be shared, and it needs to be shared fast. But how do we ensure that scientific research, preprint or peer reviewed, isn't compromised? Technology Networks spoke with Professor Jonathan Kimmelman, director of the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University, to find out his thoughts.