Our mission is to diversify peer review in the academic community by crowdsourcing pre-publication feedback to improve the quality of published scientific output, and to train early-career researchers (ECRs) in how to review others' scientific work.
We see PREreview as a hub to support and nurture the growth of a community that openly exchanges timely, constructive feedback on emerging scientific outputs. We believe that by empowering ECRs through peer review training programs, thereby increasing the diversity of researchers involved in the peer review process, PREreview will help establish a healthier and more sustainable culture around research dissemination and evaluation.

What are preprints?

Preprints are complete pieces of scientific work freely shared online before the completion of editorial peer review. Preprints are often the same manuscripts that are submitted to a journal for peer review, but are stored on freely accessible public servers such that they become available to the whole web community within 1-2 days from submission -- to learn more about preprints, check out the Preprint Info Doc.

What is a preprint journal club?

Traditional JCs – in which groups of scientists discuss published work – are a staple in academia; they are a way for scientists to collectively engage with others’ discoveries, and for early-career researchers (ECRs) to learn how to critically evaluate research output. However, the results of those discussions do not usually leave those meeting rooms, and certainly cannot contribute to improving journal-published, inalterable scientific articles.
Discussing and reviewing preprints at JCs can change that. The valuable feedback that is collected during the JC can be compiled into a review and sent back to the authors, who then have the chance of integrating that feedback into their work. Furthermore, posting these reviews publicly has the advantage of helping ECRs or people who are outside of that given scientific field develop their ability to evaluate research with a critical eye.
We believe that scientific manuscripts should be read and evaluated by a diverse population of trained and interested scientists at different career levels. On PREreview, we try to make it easier for scientists around the world to run preprint JCs and share the fruits of their discussions by providing support and training for preprint peer review, and by creating a space to collaboratively engage with preprints and share constructive feedback.

What are PREreview Live Preprint Journal Clubs? #LivePREJC

At PREreview, we love journal clubs so much that we thought we would facilitate topic-centered, cross-institutional journal clubs, run live thanks to the magical power of the Internet.  Here, we have put together some information on how to start your own Live PREreview Journal Club (#LivePREJC) and how we can help you facilitate it.