Biotropica will accept manuscripts submitted to preprint archives
“Pen & Paper” by Orin Zebest
In a recent post I argued that Biotropica should allow the submission of manuscripts that have previously been posted to preprint archives such as arXiv. Posting to preprint archives has many advantages, which include:
- claiming intellectual precedence
- making scientific advances more broadly and rapidly accessible
- allowing scientists to get feedback from the community prior to submission
I’m pleased to announce that the Editorial Board of Biotropica, in consultation with our publisher, has adopted the following policy on preprints, effective immediately:
To provide an opportunity for authors to get feedback on their work from the scientific community and stimulate the exchange of ideas, Biotropica allows authors to deposit manuscripts currently under review or intended for submission to Biotropica in pre-print repositories (e.g., ArXiv, bioRxiv, PeerJ PrePrints). The authors should provide the name of the preprint server and accession number in the cover letter accompanying submission of the manuscript. If the manuscript is accepted for publication in Biotropica the authors must provide a link to the final manuscript alongside the original preprint version.
I would like to encourage our authors to take advantage of this policy, and thank the Editorial Board and Wiley for their commitment to making Biotropica an exciting and innovative place to publish your research.
Congratulations to the Editorial Board on this forward thinking policy! I encourage you to add this information to the Wikipedia page on this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_journals_by_preprint_policy
We are seeing many ecology and biology submission to PeerJ PrePrints at the moment and so it is clear that this community is appreciating the benefits of a preprint publication.
Note: In accordance with Biotropica’s recommendations, PeerJ PrePrints allows authors to revise their submissions (perhaps in light of feedback they have received elsewhere) and to add links to any final version that might exist.
Peter, thanks for the suggestion – we’ll be sure to edit the WP page. We look forward to working more with PeerJ in the future.