New preprint server for the health sciences announced today

A joint collaboration between Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Yale University, and BMJ

medRxiv aims to meet the unique preprint needs of the clinical research community with a free, non-profit service.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY, New Haven, CT, and London, UK — Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), Yale University, and BMJ today announced the forthcoming launch of medRxiv (pronounced “med-archive”), a free online archive and distribution service for preprints in the medical and health sciences.

medRxiv is expected to begin accepting manuscripts on June 6th and will be overseen by the three organizations.

Preprints are preliminary versions of research articles that researchers share with each other before they are published in a journal, to enhance dissemination of study methods and findings among the scientific community and to solicit feedback to help improve the final published article.

medRxiv’s founding organizations are Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, creator of the biological preprint server bioRxiv (launched in 2013); BMJ, publisher of leading peer-reviewed journals and global healthcare knowledge provider; and Yale University, renowned clinical research and teaching institution. medRxiv will host manuscripts from researchers around the world, regardless of their organizational affiliation, will be publisher-neutral, and will be guided in its mission by an international advisory board.

“medRxiv’s mission is to responsibly improve the openness and accessibility of scientific findings, enhance collaboration among researchers, document the provenance of ideas, and inform ongoing and planned research through more timely reporting of completed research” said John Inglis, co-founder of medRxiv and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s bioRxiv.

medRxiv will accept preprints of articles covering all aspects of research in the health sciences. A manuscript’s appearance in medRxiv does not imply endorsement of its methods, assumptions, conclusions, or scientific quality by BMJ, Yale, or CSHL. There will be prominent labels on all articles that designate them as pre-peer review content.

A manuscript may be posted prior to, or concurrently with, submission to a journal, but not if it has already been published. Most journals from a wide variety of publishers allow publication of journal articles that have appeared in early form on designated preprint servers.

“medRxiv aims to do for authors engaged in clinical research what bioRxiv and arXiv have been doing for biology and physics, respectively, for many years,” said Harlan Krumholz, co-founder of medRxiv and Yale University Professor of Medicine and head of the Yale Open Data Access (YODA) Project. “Given the special requirements of preprints in medical and health fields, medRxiv will also provide new processes to help ensure that we are mitigating any risks of early dissemination while promoting the value of faster communication among the scientific community.”

Once posted on medRxiv, manuscripts have a digital object identifier (DOI), so are discoverable, indexable, and citable. They may be withdrawn if authors no longer stand by the findings or conclusions, but cannot routinely be removed.

“BMJ has recognized the value of preprints for more than 20 years. With the recent growth of preprints in the life sciences, we saw the time as ripe to reinvigorate the notion of preprints for the clinical sciences, and were delighted to work together with colleagues from CSHL and Yale who were thinking the same way. We have come together to provide a free, independent service for all health scientists,” said Theodora Bloom, co-founder of medRxiv and Executive Editor, The BMJ.

“Developed to support the scientific community and foster collaboration, we see medRxiv as a ‘trusted intermediary’ to accelerate the sharing of clinical papers, results and data improve public health and healthcare,” said Joseph S. Ross, co-founder of medRxiv and Associate Professor at Yale.

“The success of preprints in many other fields has highlighted the opportunity for the medical research community to create an appropriate platform for rapidly and responsibly sharing its latest research,” said Claire Rawlinson, co-founder of medRxiv and Publisher, BMJ.

“We are already seeing many instances where early release of results on bioRxiv is significantly accelerating basic research. We anticipate medRxiv will do the same for clinical research,” said Richard Sever, co-founder of medRxiv and bioRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Complete information about medRxiv, including author guidelines, is available at: medRxiv.org

For further information, please contact:
Emma Dickinson
BMJ Media Relations
London, UK
Tel: +44 (0)203 655 5021
Email: mediarelations@bmj.com

John R. Inglis, Ph.D.
Co-founder, bioRxiv & medRxiv
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
Tel: +1 (516) 422-4005
Email: inglis@cshl.edu

Karen Peart
Director, External Communications
Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Tel: +1 (203) 432-1326
Email: karen.peart@yale.edu

About BMJ
BMJ is a healthcare knowledge provider with a vision of helping to create a healthier world. We share knowledge and expertise to improve experiences and outcomes worldwide. See our full list of products and resources at bmj.com/company.

About Yale University and the Yale Open Data Access (YODA) Project
Since its founding in 1701, Yale University has been dedicated to expanding and sharing knowledge, inspiring innovation, and preserving cultural and scientific information for future generations. The Yale University Open Data Access (YODA) Project’s mission is to advocate for the responsible sharing of clinical research data, open science, and research transparency. The Project is committed to supporting research focused on improving the health of patients and informing science and public health. For more information, visit yoda.yale.edu