February 15, 2014 (Vol. 34, No. 4)
URL:
http://biorxiv.org
Rating:
Strong Points: Sleek site design, easy to browse contents
Weak Points: Relatively new, not many manuscripts yet
Summary:
In its purest form, the goal of scientific research is to discover new knowledge and share that knowledge with other scientists and the general public. However, sharing one’s research discoveries in the biological sciences via peer-reviewed journals is made difficult by the publishing process—it often takes months or even years for submitted manuscripts to be accepted for publication, as multiple rounds of revisions (and time-consuming additional experiments) may be requested. Now, however, scientists have a way to fight back against the lengthy publishing process, thanks to bioRxiv (pronounced “bio-archive”). Operated by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, bioRxiv is an online repository for unpublished manuscripts in the life sciences. The preprints are published online on the bioRxiv site, where other scientists (and the general public) can read, comment on, and discuss the work. There is no paywall and no lengthy review process—just science, shared with the community.
