The Commons provides a detailed look at refereed preprints, from the scientific content to the role of authors, editors, and reviewers. It is also a blog dedicated to discussing open science, from the development of new tools & platforms, to the policy & funding initiatives that help (or hinder) its progress.
EMBO, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, eLife/Sciety, and the Knowledge Futures Group have recently launched a collaborative pilot project called DocMaps. The project’s goal is to create a common framework that will allow the machine-readable tracking of the peer reviews of individual preprints.
As of August 1, 2021, Review Commons will require all authors to post their manuscript as a preprint, prior to transfer to an affiliate journal. In return, all the affiliate journals provide authors with extended scooping protection.
The pandemic has shown how preprints accelerate the dissemination of research findings, but it also highlights the crucial importance of peer review.