Okay, here comes a newish PI question... We're soon submitting the first paper from my group (🥳). Should we upload it on arXiv? Any reasons not to? Something to be careful about? I've been really old-fashioned with this, but with the growing peer-review times, it might be time for change. - ThreadSky

matildabackholm.bsky.social • 219 days ago

Okay, here comes a newish PI question... We're soon submitting the first paper from my group (🥳). Should we upload it on arXiv? Any reasons not to? Something to be careful about? I've been really old-fashioned with this, but with the growing peer-review times, it might be time for change.

Comments

hohlbeinlab.bsky.social•219 days ago

IMHO, whenever there is a higher chance of (desk-)rejection, it makes sense to post a preprint. Sometimes preprinting and discussing the manuscript on socials also helped us to strengthen the manuscript before official publication.

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

Good point! It's really nice if the community can provide its own group review.

zwickergroup.bsky.social•219 days ago

We always upload to arxiv and had overwhelmingly positive responses, often leading to collaborations on follow-up work.

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

Getting early feedback and follow-up collaborators are great benefits! Thanks for sharing!

peiferlabunc.bsky.social•219 days ago

I'm on the Biology side but in our broad field there is NO reason not to submit to @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social and the plusses are many

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

Thanks for sharing! It's starting to look like the best approach also on the physics side.

peiferlabunc.bsky.social•218 days ago

You folks pioneered it!

matildabackholm.bsky.social•218 days ago

True, just me being slow 😄

javanainenm.bsky.social•219 days ago

I also submit to a preprint server after journal submission, so I don’t have declare it to the journal 🫢. Just be careful with updating the preprint; preprint servers state that it’s fine to upload the revised manuscript, but some journals (at least Biophys J) does not accept that 😡

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

That's really good to know. Is it generally better to upload after journal submission? Most are fine with the paper being in arxiv also before the formal submission?

javanainenm.bsky.social•219 days ago

Doesn’t really matter as all(?) journals are fine with preprints these days. By going journal first, I just save a minute or two by not having to look for the DOI to include in the cover letter / manuscript submission system 😅

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

👌

agrossfield.bsky.social•219 days ago

Lots of journals have this objection — I think the claim is that they own the reviewers’ comments — but in my experience they don’t actually try to enforce it. I’m pretty sure lots of papers I handle for Biophys J have revised versions on biorxiv.

javanainenm.bsky.social•219 days ago

I have a colleague whose publishing process at BPJ was put to halt until they remove the revised manuscript from bioRxiv, which is not possible 🤷‍♂️.

So he’ll leave the revised preprint online, submit the manuscript elsewhere (benefiting from BPJ’s reviewer feedback), and BPJ is left with nothing 🫢

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

Autch

agrossfield.bsky.social•219 days ago

Wow — I don’t blame him (and I’m an associate editor at BJ). I didn’t think they actually enforced it.

eddpasquier.bsky.social•219 days ago

I really can’t think of a valid reason not to post on preprint servers. I know a lot of people are still reluctant but I only see pros in my personal experience.

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

Thanks for sharing! I think I just need a small final push over the energy barrier of reluctance :)

christlet.bsky.social•219 days ago

j-delpierre.bsky.social•219 days ago

As far as i know the only downside is to have the story out way ahead of time and splitting citations or get scooped for regular journals. It is a problem only if the paper is stuck a very long time in review hell.

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

So the citations are not sonehow magically combined once the real paper is out? I thought that arxiv works a bit against scooping, that an arxiv paper sort of sets the date for the discovery?

j-delpierre.bsky.social•219 days ago

I don't know if such magic exists, as far as I know it provides a DOI but it's different from the one of your final paper. There is a link to your final paper on top of the arxiv one after its publication but that's it.

uddaloksen.bsky.social•219 days ago

Congratulations! I’ve always submitted to arXiv, usually minutes after submitting to the journal. Haven’t had any upsetting situations thus far. And usually at that point, the team has spoken about the work at various public places already, so people tend to be aware in my experience.

matildabackholm.bsky.social•219 days ago

Thanks! I am somehow stuck with the need for the peer-review stamp of approval before sharing our work with the rest of the world. But then again, we have also presented it at conferences already, so it doesn't make much sense.

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