Richard Sever
Senior Lecturer
MA, University of Oxford, 1992
Ph.D., University of Cambridge, 1996
sever@cshl.edu | (516) 422-4005
Faculty Profile
My undergraduate degree was in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. I switched to Cambridge for my PhD, researching gene regulation at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. My PhD focused on regulation of AP1 and other transcription factors by signal transduction pathways, in particular MAP kinase cascades. I also tutored undergraduates who were studying molecular cell biology as part of the Cambridge Natural Sciences Tripos.
I then trained as a scientific editor, working first at Current Opinion in Cell Biology and then Trends in Biochemical Sciences. I went on to become Executive Editor of Journal of Cell Science at The Company of Biologists, where I also helped modernize and develop their publication program. I joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in 2008 as an editor at CSHL Press and was appointed Assistant Director in 2012. At CSHL Press, I launched and edited the journals Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology and Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine and served as Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Protocols. I also edited several books, including the textbook Signal Transduction and the handbook Career Alternatives for Biomedical Scientists.
My experience in science publishing and research convinced me that the research communication system could be improved and that sharing findings more quickly would benefit everyone. So in 2013 I co-founded the preprint server bioRxiv to facilitate this and later medRxiv in 2019 to help bring the approach to clinical research. The servers became essential resources for researchers and played critical roles during the pandemic.
I am now Chief Science & Strategy Officer at openRxiv, the non-profit organization we set up to operate bioRxiv and medRxiv. I’m also a faculty member at CSHL and teach classes in science communication at Cold Spring Harbor School of Biological Sciences.
All Publications
Preprints as tools to advance careers
2 Jul 2024 | Nature Reviews Cancer
Hindle, Samantha; Sever, Richard;
Recommendations for accelerating open preprint peer review to improve the culture of science
29 Feb 2024 | PLoS Biology | 22(2):e3002502
Avissar-Whiting, Michele; Belliard, Frédérique; Bertozzi, Stefano; Brand, Amy; Brown, Katherine; Clément-Stoneham, Géraldine; Dawson, Stephanie; Dey, Gautam; Ecer, Daniel; Edmunds, Scott; Farley, Ashley; Fischer, Tara; Franko, Maryrose; Fraser, James; Funk, Kathryn; Ganier, Clarisse; Harrison, Melissa; Hatch, Anna; Hazlett, Haley; Hindle, Samantha; Hook, Daniel; Hurst, Phil; Kamoun, Sophien; Kiley, Robert; Lacy, Michael; LaFlamme, Marcel; Lawrence, Rebecca; Lemberger, Thomas; Leptin, Maria; Lumb, Elliott; MacCallum, Catriona; Marcum, Christopher; Marinello, Gabriele; Mendonça, Alex; Monaco, Sara; Neves, Kleber; Pattinson, Damian; Polka, Jessica; Puebla, Iratxe; Rittman, Martyn; Royle, Stephen; Saderi, Daniela; Sever, Richard; Shearer, Kathleen; Spiro, John; Stern, Bodo; Taraborelli, Dario; Vale, Ron; Vasquez, Claudia; Waltman, Ludo; Watt, Fiona; Weinberg, Zara; Williams, Mark;
Biomedical publishing: Past historic, present continuous, future conditional
Oct 2023 | PLoS Biology | 21(10):e3002234
Sever, Richard;
What is the Future of Preprint Peer Review?
7 Mar 2023 | Acta Medica Portuguesa
Sever, Richard; Carvalho, Thiago;
We need a plan D
6 Mar 2023 | Nature Methods
Sever, Richard;
Preprint review should form part of PhD programmes and postdoc training.
Jan 2023 | Nature | 613(7944):415
Sever, Richard;
PReF: describing key Preprint Review Features
27 Jan 2022 | Center for Open Science
Polka, Jessica; Puebla, Iratxe; Pattinson, Damian; Hurst, Philip; McDowell, Gary; Sever, Richard; Lemberger, Thomas; Avissar-Whiting, Michele; Cohen, Philip; Ross-Hellauer, Tony; Stein, Gabriel; Shearer, Kathleen; Stone, Clare; Yan, Victoria;
Letter to editor: Recommendations for preprints.
18 Jan 2022 | Current Medical Research and Opinion | :1-3
Sever, Richard;
Submissions and Downloads of Preprints in the First Year of medRxiv.
10 Nov 2020 | Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) | 324(18):1903-1905
Krumholz, Harlan; Bloom, Theodora; Sever, Richard; Rawlinson, Claire; Inglis, John; Ross, Joseph;
Building trust in preprints: recommendations for servers and other stakeholders
21 Jul 2020 | Center for Open Science
Beck, Jeffrey; Ferguson, Christine; Funk, Kathryn; Hanson, Brooks; Harrison, Melissa; Ide-Smith, Michele; Lammey, Rachael; Levchenko, Maria; Mendonça, Alex; Parkin, Michael; Penfold, Naomi; Pfeiffer, Nicole; Polka, Jessica; Puebla, Iratxe; Rieger, Oya; Rittman, Martyn; Sever, Richard; Swaminathan, Sowmya;