We are thrilled to announce a new collaboration between PREreview and Current Research in Neurobiology (CRNEUR)—a gold open access journal that publishes original research in neuroscience. Together we will host 5 open, collaborative, and interactive review events styled after PREreview Live Reviews.
About this pilot
PREreview has long partnered with the community to host and facilitate what we call Live Reviews (formerly called Live-streamed Preprint Journal Clubs)—topic-centered, interactive online calls in which participants are guided to provide constructive feedback to a preprint.
CRNEUR is a gold open access journal from Elsevier that seeks to be a leader in innovative open access publishing, working to improve global research culture and public engagement in neuroscience research. With this pilot, the CRNEUR editorial team is keen to explore how the open and collaborative aspect of the PREreview Live Reviews conducted alongside more traditional peer review can contribute to their mission.
“We are delighted to be exploring ways to improve the peer review process with PREreview and appreciate the authors and reviewers taking part in the pilot. We aim to obtain several metrics to be able to compare it to our more traditional peer-review workflow.”—Chris Petkov, CRNEUR Co-Editor in Chief
Over the course of the next few months we will host 5 events, each focused on one research manuscript currently under review at the journal that is also published as a preprint. Two members of the PREreview team will guide a collaborative discussion aimed at providing constructive feedback to the manuscript in question.
The event will last 90 minutes and will yield a review based on the collaborative notes participants will be jointly taking during the call. The review will be shared with the authors and published on PREreview.org under CC BY 4.0 license. Participants will have the option to sign the final review using their real name (via their ORCID iD) or via a pseudonym provided by the PREreview account. The CRNEUR editorial team will consider the review as an addition to their standard journal workflow protocol.
During these events we hope to gather a community of like-minded individuals interested in discussing and learning about the latest research in their field. By joining these calls you can expect to find:
- A welcoming and inclusive space in which participants are invited to share their thoughts and ideas around the manuscript reviewed, and engage in respectful discussion;
- A space in which participants can learn from one another, connect with peers and hone their peer-review skills;
- An opportunity to engage in open preprint review and help shape innovation in scholarly peer review.
Have questions? Check the FAQs below or email us at community@prereview.org.
Join the next event
All 5 Pilot Live Review events have happened already. Below we publish the PREreviews which resulted from those events.
Previous events in this pilot
- May 26, 2023 - see published PREreview
- June 30, 2023 - see published PREreview
- July 28, 2023 - see published PREreview
- October 19, 2023 - see published PREreview
- December 7, 2023 - see published PREreview
Last update: January 23, 2024
FAQs
Who can join these events? - Anyone interested in the research topic discussed is welcome to join the call. We ask participants who contribute to the discussion and the review to state any existing competing interests according to our policy.
Who will be at the call? - Two members of the PREreview team who will facilitate the discussion, members of CRNEUR editorial team, and whoever has registered for the event.
Do I have to be an active researcher to participate? - No. Anyone interested in the research topic under discussion and armed with respect and a constructive attitude is welcome to join.
Will the authors be there? - The authors of the manuscript under discussion will be invited to join but their participation is optional. If they decide to join, they will be asked to briefly introduce themselves and identify who they are by adding “author” to their Zoom name. The authors will be encouraged to share areas of the work that they would most appreciate feedback on and allowed to observe, but will be asked to remain silent until the end of the call, unless asked direct questions from the participants.
Do I need to read the preprint in advance of the event? - Yes! Please come along having read and thought about the preprint in order to engage in meaningful discussions and evaluate collaboratively with others on the call.
Will the call be recorded? If so, who will have access to the video? - The call will be recorded and the video will be shared solely among the stakeholders involved in the pilot which includes the PREreview team and the CRNEUR editorial team.
If I join the call, do I get to be listed as a review author? - Not necessarily. Here are your options as a participant:
- Join the call as a listener - not actively contributing to the discussion
- Join the call only as a discussion participant - contribute to the discussion of the manuscript by unmuting your mic when prompted by facilitators and/or by typing in your answers in the collaborative notes google doc we’ll be using during the call.
- Join the call as a review author - participate in the discussion during the call and contribute to the final review that will be published on PREreview.org by helping the PREreview team summarize the discussion points into a review*.
*This will likely take no more than 1 hour of your time working asynchronously on a shared google doc, and will require you creating an account on PREreview.org.
Do I need to join with my laptop or can I join with my phone? - You can join with whatever device you have at your disposal at the time of the call, but if you had a choice, we would recommend joining with your laptop so that you can contribute to the collaborative notes document should you want to.
How will you ensure inclusive participation? - We will have live-caption services provided via Otter.ai. Additionally, facilitators will invite vocal participation by unmuting one’s microphone when invited to speak as well as by directly adding text to a structured collaborative notes document similar to this one. Finally, as for all events hosted by PREreview, participants will be asked to adhere to our Code of Conduct.
Stay connected
To learn more about events such as these and PREreview in general you can follow us on Mastodon, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and keep up with all the latest news by subscribing to our newsletter.
We look forward to your participation in this event series run by PREreview and our incredible community members!
