Abstract
Scientific publications enable results and ideas to be transmitted throughout the scientific community. The number and type of journal publications also have become the primary criteria used in evaluating career advancement. Our analysis suggests that publication practices have changed considerably in the life sciences over the past thirty years. Considerably more experimental data is now required for publication, and the average time required for graduate students to publish their first paper has increased and is approaching the desirable duration of Ph.D. training. Since publication is generally a requirement for career progression, schemes to reduce the time of graduate student and postdoctoral training may be difficult to implement without also considering new mechanisms for accelerating communication of their work. The increasing time to publication also delays potential catalytic effects that ensue when many scientists have access to new information. The time has come for the life scientists, funding agencies, and publishers to discuss how to communicate new findings in a way that best serves the interests of the public and scientific community.
Most biologists have become frustrated with the current state of scientific publishing. Attention has been drawn to flaws in using journal impact factors for evaluating scientific merit (1), the hypercompetitive environment created by scientists seeking to publish their work in the top journals (2), and the extensive revisions required by reviewers and editors (3, 4). In this Perspective, I wish to focus on another issue that has received less attention– the increasing amount of data, and hence time, required to publish a paper.
As a consumer of scientific literature, I enjoy reading the comprehensive scientific studies that are being published today. However, the foundation of today’s data-rich articles is acquired at a cost, which is the time that graduate students and postdoctoral fellows spend in collecting and analyzing the data. Indeed, as I will discuss later, the length of time required to publish a scientific work is likely impacting the duration and quality of Ph.D. and postdoctoral training. Furthermore, as laboratories wait to accumulate more experimental data before they feel that a benchmark for publication is met, crucial results are being sequestered from the scientific community for longer periods of time. In this Perspective, I will argue that creating new outlets for faster and more nimble scientific communication could have positive outcomes on professional training, catalyzing scientific progress, and improving the culture of communication within the life sciences as a whole.
A trend toward increasing data required for publication
Many senior scientists feel that the amount of data required for publication has increased over their careers (for example, see ref. 4). But is this actually true? Quantifying the amount of experimental data in a publication is non-trivial, as data can take many different forms and varies in the amount of time required for its acquisition. Furthermore, comparing the amount of data in contemporary versus prior papers is difficult. For example, the time required to obtain certain types of information has decreased; as an extreme example, sequencing an entire genome now requires less time than cloning and sequencing a single gene 40 years ago. However, scientists always push technical limits, and many of the experiments performed today also are difficult and require a long time to master and execute. Thus, I would argue that truly informative experimental data is not vastly easier to obtain now than in the past. Practices in data inclusion may have also changed; for example, experiments described as “data not shown” in the papers of thirty years ago would now likely be included in a figure or supplemental figure by new journal policies.
With the above caveats noted, I sought to compare the amount of experimental information presented in biology papers published Cell, Nature (biology only), and the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB, operated by editors from the scientific community) from the first six months of 1984 and of 2014. The number of papers published by Cell remained approximately the same, decreased slightly for Nature, and dropped in half for the JCB in 2014 compared with 1984 (Fig. 1A). The average number of figures in the print version of papers did not change significantly, as journal guidelines have remained largely the same between these two time periods (Fig. 1B). However, number of experimental panels contained within the print version of the paper rose dramatically (2-4-fold) during this thirty-year span (Fig. 1C; see Fig. S1 for the breakdown of short and long format papers in Nature and JCB). Separate labeled panels do not always constitute distinct experiments, and figure labeling styles might have changed in past thirty years. To examine this point, panels in Cell and Nature were scored as to whether they contain distinct pieces of data or were derived from the same experiment (see Supporting Information Methods and Fig. S2). The number of distinct data sets was approximately two-thirds of the number of labeled panels, and this ratio did not change substantially between 1984 and 2014 for either Cell or Nature. Thus, we conclude that the fold-increase in panel number reflects a true increase in the amount of data in the print version between 1984 and 2014. The increase in the amount of data per paper is even more substantial when supplemental information, which began to appear ∼1997, is taken into consideration (Fig. 1B, C). In particular, the number of supplemental figures and their panels were comparable to (Cell) or exceeded (Nature) those that were published in the print version (Fig. 1C). Consistent with this trend of more data and the likely use of more diverse and complex techniques, today’s papers in Cell, Nature and JCB have 2-4-fold more authors than those from 1984 (Fig. 1D). However, enlisting more authors is probably not the sole mechanism for acquiring the additional data needed for contemporary papers. As will be discussed later, it also appears to take a longer period of time to publish a paper now than in the past.
Breakdown of information for long and short format papers. A) Data for Nature: long format (Articles) and short format (Letters). B) Data for Journal of Cell Biology (JCB): long format (Articles) and short format (Rapid Communications (1984 name) or Reports (2014 name). These data from long and short format papers were combined together in the analysis in Fig. 1.
Analysis of the number of panels (assigned as a letter in the figure) and distinct pieces of experimental data in the print versions of Cell and Nature. “Data” is defined as derived from a distinct experiment or a significant type of new analysis (see SI Methods section); as an example, two panels that show two views of a micrograph would be considered as a single datum in this analysis. While the scoring of “distinct data” is admittedly subjective, the analysis shows a similar ratio of data versus panels in the two journals and between the two different time periods.
Statistics for papers published in Cell, Nature (biology papers only) and the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB) for the months of January-June in 1984 and 2014. Long and short format papers (Articles and Letters for Nature, and Articles and Reports/Rapid Communications for JCB) are grouped together in this figure, but analysis of each category can be found in Fig. S1. A) The total number of papers published during these two six month time periods. B) The average number of figures in the print and online supplement of each paper. For Nature, most of the data in this figure is derived from the “Extended Data” section, although the “Supplemental Information” section also contributes some data in this analysis. An online supplement did not exist for journals in 1984. C) The number of panels per paper (assigned as a letter in the figure; tables were also scored in this category). D) The average number of authors per paper. The means and standard deviations are shown in panels B-D. See SI Methods for details on analysis. See Fig. S2 for an analysis of the pieces of distinct experimental data contained within the panels of the print version of Cell and Nature.
Factors driving an increasing amount of data per publication
What factors have driven the increasing amount of data per publication over the past few decades? One likely factor is supply and demand-more scientists are competing for the same or less real estate (space in top journals, Fig. 1A) compared to thirty years ago. Over the past 30 years, the US scientific workforce (e.g. postdoctoral fellows and graduate students) has increased by almost three-fold (5, 6), fueled, in part, by the doubling of the NIH budget between 1998-2003. In addition to the US, many other countries have accelerated their life science research programs, particularly China and India. From 1999 to 2005, publications from US labs increased only 3.6% annually, while those from China increased 38.9% (7). Thus, with more scientists desiring high-profile publications for their grants and promotions, the elite journals can set a higher bar for what they accept. A “high impact” result constitutes one important criterion for publication. However, a second and increasingly important benchmark is having a very well developed or “mature” research story, which effectively translates into more experiments and more data. A whole genome screen followed by a mouse model to understand the physiological functions of one of the gene hits as well as additional structural work to understand the mechanism might be what is needed to seal the deal for acceptance. Reviewers, in turn, fall in line with the escalating expectations and continually reset their own benchmarks of “what it takes” to get into a particular journal. With these market forces at work and a positive feedback loop between journal editors and reviewers, the expectations for publication have ratcheted up insidiously over the past few decades.
In addition to the time required to obtain the data for submission, the review process itself typically adds new demands for more data before the work can be officially accepted for publication. If one is fortunate enough to have the paper sent out for review, then three referee reports are commonplace these days. Frequently, each referee requests additional experiments. Many of our own papers have been significantly improved by experiments suggested through peer review. However, many suggested experiments are unnecessary, and sometimes the requested work is so extensive that it constitutes a separate study onto itself. Furthermore, it is not easy to “say no” to the referee-suggested experiments. After all, the journal editor will have another revised paper on his/her desk where all of the referees are completely satisfied. Thus, authors feel as though they are held hostage, fearful that their paper will not be accepted if they do not comply with most, if not all, of the experimental requests.
While the elite journals are important driving forces in the scientific market place, the trend towards more data is felt throughout the publication ecosystem. One reason is that non-elite journals want to improve their status, and, as a consequence, strive to be selective and seek more mature stories. This is perhaps why JCB accepts fewer papers now than it did in the 1980s (Fig. 1A). Second, scientists feel pressured to aim high and acquire the data that they think will be needed for publication in an elite journal. But alas, when it comes time for journal courtship, they find their work editorially rejected not once, but thrice, and then eventually publish their large body of work in a lower tier journal. It is not easy to obtain information on journal rejections from the 1980s, although I speculate that the frequency has increased considerably in the past thirty years. Thus, in addition to the time invested in acquiring data, the time spent in finding a home for a paper through sequential journal submissions also significantly delays the transmission of results to the scientific community.
What is a minimal unit for publication?
Most scientific papers, now and in the past, usually have one or two key findings. But with the trend towards publishing more mature scientific stories, it has become harder to publish just a key initial finding or a bold hypothesis.
Let’s consider the Watson and Crick publications, perhaps the most famous in modern biology, and imagine how they might fare in today’s publishing environment. Many people may be unaware that Watson and Crick published not one but two papers on DNA in Nature in successive months. The first paper published on April 25, 1953 described a structural model for the DNA double helix (8). Despite having a single figure (a model figure without data), it was listed as an “Article” rather than a “Letter”, based upon the magnitude of the idea. The first Watson/Crick paper was accompanied by two other Articles on the X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA; the paper by Maurice Wilkins had two figures (9) and the one by Rosalind Franklin displayed a single figure (10). The second Watson/Crick Nature paper (also an Article published on May 30) was entitled “Genetic Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid”. It described, without any data, a hypothesis for the hydrogen bonding of the “Watson-Crick” base pairs and speculated how the two DNA strands might each provide a template for the replication of genetic information (11). Several months later, Wilkins and Franklin each independently published second Articles in Nature describing more complete analyses of the structure of DNA (12, 13). Thus, the story of DNA, like a Charles Dickens novel, came out in installments. Furthermore, it also should be emphasized that the Watson and Crick model was speculative, particularly with regard to the process of DNA replication. As a result, the revolutionary ideas of Watson and Crick were not instantly accepted and their implications were not widely understood by the scientific community at the time of publication. Experimental evidence for unwinding of the DNA strands and semi-conservative replication was published in 1958 by Meselson and Stahl (14), and this placed the Watson and Crick model for replication on a solid footing.
Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, let’s imagine a contemporary editorial decision on the 1953 Watson and Crick papers (assuming that they were submitted together):
“Dear Jim and Francis:
Your two papers have now been seen by three referees. Based upon these reviews, I regret to say that we cannot offer publication at this time. While your model is very appealing, referee 3 finds that it is somewhat speculative and premature for publication. Indeed, your model proposing a semi-conservative replication of DNA raises many obvious questions. As two of the referees point out, it should be possible to determine experimentally if the two strands can separate and serve as templates. This would address referee 3’s concern that strand separation is not feasible thermodynamically. I regret to say that without such experimental evidence, we will not be able to publish your work in Nature and suggest publication in a more specialized journal. Should you be able to furnish more direct experimental evidence, we would be willing to reconsider such a revised paper. Naturally we would need to consult our referees once again. Furthermore, since space in our journal is at a premium, if you do decide to resubmit, then we recommend that you combine your two submitted papers into a single and more cohesive Article, potentially including the X-ray studies of your colleagues at Cambridge. Thank you again for submitting your papers to Nature. I am sure that this revision will delay your Nobel Prize and the discovery of the genetic code by only one or two years.”
A discovery emerging in closely spaced installments was not unique to DNA. The molecular mechanism underlying familial hypercholesterolemia was unraveled in three key papers by Brown and Goldstein between 1973-1974, each of which solved a piece of the puzzle (15, 16, 17). Similarly, the discoveries of ubiquitination and protein degradation by Hershko, Ciechanover, and Rose emerged in three papers in 1979-1980 (18, 19, 20). Studies on the mechanism of axonal transport by myself, Schnapp, Reese and Sheetz (covering work from 1983-1985) were published in five papers in 1985 (21-25). In all of the above examples, the information could have been delayed and compacted into fewer publications, as no doubt would occur today. However, by unfolding these breakthroughs in a series of papers, the progression of results could be quickly disseminated to the scientific community, the value of which will be discussed in the next section.
Consequences on the exchange of information within the scientific community
The “comprehensive” paper enables authors to build a convincing argument for their hypothesis. Indeed, the Watson/Crick model combined with the Meselson/Stahl experiment would have constituted an amazing paper that would have immediately convinced everyone in the field. However, there is also merit in getting new ideas and key experiments published with reasonable speed, even if they are incomplete. Once in the public domain, the collective power of the scientific enterprise can take effect and the ideas can be tested and advanced further, not only by the original researchers but by other investigators as well. Once results are published, other scientists can see connections with their own work, perform new experiments that the original investigators might never do, and also emerge with new ideas. Overall, putting new results and ideas in the public domain is good for science and serves the mission of the funding agencies that seek to advance research overall.
Today, two opposing factors come into play in deciding when to publish a paper. On one hand, scientists want to get their work published as fast as possible, both for advancing their careers (discussed below) as well as claiming priority for their discovery and avoiding getting “scooped”. However, publishing in a top journal has become an equally compelling consideration for many scientists, and this latter factor can tip the balance towards delaying submission until more experimental data can be obtained. As a personal anecdote, our laboratory recently published a paper on the activation of mammalian dynein motility by dynactin and a cargo adapter protein such as BicD (26). The idea for this study was stimulated by a publication from another lab showing that BicD, dynactin, and dynein form a stable biochemical complex (27), which illustrates how a publication from one lab can stimulate new work in another. The result showing the activation of dynein motility by dynactin-BicD was made relatively quickly and constitutes the most important finding of the paper. However, without additional mechanistic experiments, this result would have been difficult to publish in a broad interest journal. Thus, additional experiments were performed, the net result of which was more complete and interesting paper, but at the expense of delaying the key initial finding by a year.
The protracted nature of the publication process also may be affecting the exchange of information at scientific meetings. Students/postdocs, although eager to have the chance to present their work, have become increasingly wary about sharing their unpublished data at scientific meetings. As a result, scientific meetings are becoming increasingly filled with recently published or soon-to-be published results, rather than exciting work in progress.
Consequences for Training
In 1990, the average age at which scientists received their first R01 NIH grant was less than 38 years; in 2013, that same milestone was reached at an average age of over 45 years (28). This trend is of great concern for many obvious reasons (2, 28), including the fact that it is making a career in biomedical research less attractive to young people (29). In an attempt to reverse this trend, efforts are now being made to accelerate the career track of young scientists. Many graduate schools require regular thesis committee meetings to promote timely graduation. Some institutions and granting agencies limit the length of postdoctoral training to 5 years, which is also strongly recommended by a recent National Research Council report (30). In addition, new grant schemes, such as the NIH K99, seek to promote the transition of postdoctoral fellows to junior faculty positions. All of these measures are worthy, but for them to succeed in reducing training time, they must be accompanied by changes in the publication system. Placing term limits on graduate and postdoc training would be a perfect solution if PIs were always responsible for keeping their trainees for too long in their laboratories. While this no doubt occurs, graduate students and postdocs also are asking their PIs if they can stay for a longer period of time. To understand why this is happening, one has to appreciate the connection between publication and career advancement.
Scientific papers are required for obtaining a job, a promotion, or a grant, and thus have become a primary currency for professional advancement. Furthermore, papers in elite journals have become particularly valuable in the career marketplace. Graduate students and postdocs understand the “paper economy”, and they want to publish as many papers as possible and ideally publish a paper in Cell, Science and Nature.
But it seems as though publishing many papers and being published in elite journals is harder now than it was in the past. I examined the publication records for Ph.D. students at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) who graduated in the 1980s (n = 71) versus those that graduated in the past three years (n= 104; Table 1; Fig. S3 and S4). The average time for acquiring a Ph.D. increased slightly between the past (5.7 years) and current (6.3 years) student groups; these times to degree are largely consistent with national trends (5). However, even though the contemporary group of graduate students was in school for one-half year longer, they published fewer first/second author papers and published much less frequently in the three most prestigious journals. Consistent with the notion of more data being required for publication, the contemporary students also took an additional 1.3 years, on average, to publish their first, first-author paper compared with students from the 1980s. Strikingly, the average time to a first author publication for the current cohort (6 years for students who publish) is just below the average time of their graduation (6.3 year) and at the desired upper boundary for training in these graduate programs (6 years or less). These general trends also are apparent when comparing the top 1/3rd of students with the best publication records, suggesting that the differences cannot be explained by admitting a pool less capable students now than in the past (Table 1). UCSF also remains a highly sought-after graduate school, and its reputation has gotten stronger since the 1980s. This type of analysis should be extended to larger numbers of students from many different universities, but these preliminary data suggest that it has become harder for graduate students to publish.
Scatter plot of data on UCSF graduate students corresponding to Table 1. The time periods of graduation are indicated on the X axis (n =71 for 1979-1989 graduates; n = 104 for 2012-2014 graduates). The middle black lines indicate the mean and the error bars show standard deviations. Data for graduation and publication times were rounded to the nearest quarter of a year in this graph. The p-value differences (Kolmogorv-Smirnov test) for time to graduation, time to the first first-author publication, number of first-author publications, and number of first- and second-author publications are 0.0007, 0.0002, 0.0009, and 0.0083.
Scatter plot of data of the top one-third UCSF graduate student group with the best publication record corresponding to Table 1. The time periods of graduation are indicated on the X axis (n =24 for 1979-1989 graduates; n = 34 for 2012-2014 graduates). The middle black lines indicate the mean and the error bars show standard deviations. Data for graduation and publication times were rounded to the nearest quarter of a year in this graph. The p-value differences (Kolmogorv-Smirnov test) for time to graduation, time to first first-author publication, number of first-author publications, and number of first- and second-author publications are 0.03, 0.002, 0.022, and 0.289.
Table Legend: The publications from Ph.D. students who performed experimental work and graduated in the indicated years of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biophysics, Genetics, and Neuroscience programs were analyzed. The time periods indicated refer to the year of graduation. A larger time span (1979-1980) was scored compared to the recent time period (2012-2014) since past graduate programs were smaller than they are now. “Top” refers to the top 1/3rd of the students in each group with the best publication records, as assigned qualitatively based upon the combination of criteria described in this table. “C/N/S” refers to papers in Cell, Nature and Science and represents the average number of publications in these journals per student. Values represent means and standard deviations. Since co-authorship did not exist in the 1980s, we only scored the order of authorship; thus a shared first author in the second position was counted as a second authorship in our analysis; an exception to this rule was made if a second position, co-first author work was the sole paper from the student’s graduate work. For more details of the analysis, see the SI Methods section. Scatter plots for all of the data are shown in Figs. S3 and S4.
The increasing time to publication poses difficulties in reaching milestones for career advancement. Graduate students often need to apply for a postdoctoral position 9-12 months prior to graduation and thesis committees often recommend having a first-author paper accepted for publication prior to initiating the application process. Postdocs seeking a job or grant support face a similar predicament. For example, let’s consider the timing of the highly sought-after NIH K99 Pathway to Independence Award, which provides 1-2 years of postdoctoral training and 3 years of independent support. The postdoc likely requires 2 months to write a successful grant and then it can take 9 months from submission to the time when funding is received. Importantly, a K99 grant will be considered much more competitive if the postdoc has a prior publication; a “manuscript in submission” cannot be listed in an NIH grant application. If it takes a postdoc three years to have a paper accepted before submitting a competitive K99 application (often a best case scenario), then a talented young scientist will spend ∼5-6 years in a postdoc before getting a job (three years to publish a paper, an additional year from grant writing to funding, followed by a ∼1-2 year training period). In summary, communicating a paper through a formal and publicly accessible mechanism to thesis, grant, and job committees could accelerate career transitions towards the end of graduate and postdoctoral training.
Providing young scientists with more opportunities to publish also has other advantages for training. Preparing and publishing a scientific paper is a critical part of the apprenticeship of becoming a scientist. This experience not only promotes skills in writing, but also in organizing experimental data and learning how to convey ideas effectively. The process of completing a scientific paper also teaches young scientists how to be more efficient in planning and executing experiments in their future projects. However, with the increasing time involved in acquiring data and publishing, young scientists get fewer chances to write papers and thus arguably are less well trained in these skills than trainees in the past (Table 1). Furthermore, if a critical study reaches the point of publication after 4-5 years of work, all too often the PI, who has more experience, takes over the process of writing from a graduate student or postdoc. In such cases, neither the young scientist nor the PI are willing to take chances with the paper being accepted in today’s competitive publication environment.
Another value of publishing earlier is that it allows a graduate student or a postdoc to explore more options for utilizing their remaining training period. Rather than myopically focusing on getting their one paper out, trainees can decide whether they want expand their first study, move on to another research question, or spend some time to pursuing additional career training (e.g. teaching).
Possible solutions to accelerating publishing
New journals and publishing platforms have recently introduced several interesting innovations, including providing immediate open access to publications (which PLoS One is doing on a large scale) and reforming the mechanism and transparency of peer review (e.g. eLife and F1000 Research). The above efforts should be applauded, as they are steering publishing in good overall directions. However, creating more new journals, which are expensive to operate and must struggle to compete for good manuscripts in a complex system of pre-existing journals, is unlikely to constitute the transformative solution needed for accelerating scientific communication. A mechanism that has the potential for transformative change must 1) operate on a large scale (i.e. hundreds of thousands of papers per year rather than hundreds), 2) succeed in capturing the very best work in different fields, 3) be able to launch and co-exist with existing journals, and 4) be cost-effective and be possible to implement on a time scale of years rather than decades.
Lessons from the Physics Community: Should Biologists Adopt an Internet Pre-Print System?
A mechanism for accelerating scientific communication that meets the above criteria has been developed already by the physical science community. Physicists, mathematicians, and computer scientists typically deposit their scientific manuscripts prior to journal publication in an open access e-print service called arXiv (pronounced “archive”), which was founded by Paul Ginsparg and now operated by Cornell Library. This repository of electronic pre-prints is searchable, and subscribers can receive daily alerts of new submissions in their areas of interest. Indeed, many physicists have developed a habit of checking for alerts from arXiv first thing in the morning. Generally, although not always, a paper uploaded onto arXiv is then submitted to a journal several days or a few weeks later. Importantly, the public disclosure through arXiv is accepted by the physical science/mathematics community as priority for a discovery, and an arXiv posting is acceptable as a reference in a journal, book or grant application. After the original paper is posted in arXiv, new versions can be uploaded, for example after a paper has been revised through the journal review process or in response to other comments received by the community. However, earlier versions of the paper must be retained and the nature of the changes are indicated in revised uploads.
ArXiv evolved from a common practice in the physics community, beginning several decades ago, of mailing unpublished manuscripts to colleagues in the field. This also was more common in the early years of molecular biology, a famous example being Watson and Crick obtaining a pre-print from Linus Pauling that proposed the erroneous triple helix model of DNA. As technology evolved, mail turned to email, and physicists sent their manuscripts to colleagues by this electronic route. With the development of the internet, physicists rallied around the formation of a pre-print server, and arXiv was established in 1991. Since its inception, one million papers have been submitted to arXiv through January 2015, and arXiv papers were downloaded 67 million times in 2013 alone. Differing from the bulk of work in biology, arXiv contains many purely theoretical papers. However landmark experimental studies also are routinely disseminated first on arXiv, a recent example being the discovery of the Higgs boson.
In 2007, “Nature Preceding” launched a first attempt at a biology-based pre-print repository; while this site still hosts manuscripts, it no longer receives new submissions. More recently (2013), a pre-print resource, called bioRxiv.org was launched by Cold Spring Harbor Press. Manuscripts can be deposited in three categories- “New Results”, “Confirmatory Results” and “Contradictory Results” (the later two categories are hard to disseminate through traditional journals) and the site permits commentary on submitted manuscripts. Faculty of 1000 also has launched an interesting “publication platform” (F1000 Research) that posts a submitted paper during its own peer review process, then immediately lists the paper on PubMed after it receives two favorable reviews, and publishes the reviews alongside the paper. Other types of preprint sites also exist (31).
Would a centralized, open access, and widely used pre-print repository be sensible for biologists, as it has been for physicists? Harold Varmus advocated for such a system (termed E-biomed) in 1999 when he was director of the NIH (32). Others (e.g. ref. 31) have the echoed the benefits of an electronic pre-publication system for biology. Regarding the topic of this Perspective, there are several arguments in favor of promoting a pre-print server in biology:
1) Submission to a pre-print repository would allow a paper to be seen and evaluated by colleagues and search/grant committees immediately after its completion. This could enable trainees to apply for postdoctoral positions, grants, or jobs earlier than waiting for the final journal publication. A recent study of several journals found an average delay of ∼7 months from acceptance to publication (33), but this is average depended upon the journal and the review/revision process can take longer on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, this time does not take rejections into account and the potential need to “shop” for a journal that will publish the work.
2) A primary objective of a pre-print repository is to transmit scientific results more rapidly to the scientific community, which should appeal to funding agencies whose main objective is to catalyze new discoveries overall. Furthermore, authors receive faster and broader feedback on their work than occurs through peer review, which can help advance their own studies.
3) If widely adopted, a pre-print repository (which acts an umbrella to collect all scientific work and is not unassociated with any specific journal) could have the welcoming effect of having colleagues read and evaluate scientific work well before it has been branded with a journal name. Physicists tend to rely less on journal impact factors for evaluation, in part, because they are used to reading and evaluating science posted on arXiv. Indeed, some major breakthroughs posted on arXiv were never published subsequently in a journal. The life science community needs to return to a culture of evaluating scientific merit from reading manuscripts, rather than basing judgment on where papers were published and hence outsourcing the career evaluation process to journals.
4) A pre-print repository may not solve the “amount of data” required for the next step of journal publication. However, it might lower the bar for shorter manuscripts to be posted and reach the community, even if an ensuing submission to a journal takes longer to develop.
5) A pre-print repository is good value in terms of impact and information transferred per dollar spent. Compared to operating a journal, the cost of running arXiv is low (∼$800,000 per year), most of which comes from modest subscription payments from 175 institutions and a matching grant from the Simons Foundation. Unlike a journal, submissions to arXiv are free.
6) Future innovations and experiments in peer-to-peer communication and evaluation could be built around an open pre-print server. Indeed, such communications might provide additional information and thus aid journal-based peer review.
7) A pre-print server for biology represents a feasible action item, since the physicists/mathematicians have proof-of-principle that this system works and can co-exist with journals (discussed below).
A chief concern regarding most electronic pre-print servers is the lack of peer review (F1000R perhaps being an exception), which could permit lower quality or irreproducible data to be disseminated. While a risk, several factors mitigate such concerns. First, only registered authors can submit a pre-print to arXiv (either their own or one from a colleague) and the papers are additionally screened after submission. bioRxiv submissions also are screened by scientists. As a result, overtly “unscientific” articles are eliminated from these repositories. A second significant factor for ensuring quality is that the reputation of the investigator is at stake. Indeed, a pre-print submission is immediately visible to the entire community, whereas a journal submission is seen confidentially by only a couple of referees. Thus, posting of a poor quality paper on a pre-print server will be widely visible and reflect poorly on the investigator and his/her lab. Third, the paper can be revised based upon feedback and reposted, which also provides an opportunity for the community to examine the progression of a manuscript after its pre-print release. Fourth, peer review by journals, while good, is certainly not a fool-proof mechanism for identifying problems or eliminating scientific irreproducibility, the recent retraction of a method for preparing pluripotent stem cells being an example of a fictitious study that found its way through the cracks of editorial and peer review (34). If this study had first surfaced as a pre-print and was seen by many scientists quickly, then it is likely that flaws would have surfaced well before journal publication. Thus, the buyer always must beware and exercise appropriate judgment for scientific quality, regardless of whether a study appears in an elite journal or an electronic pre-print archive. In addition, one could imagine an option of incorporating author-initiated peer evaluations, which most scientists do informally before submitting their work to a journal and is not unlike contributed submissions to the PNAS by NAS members.
Other concerns center around whether a pre-print posting will “count” as priority for a discovery and whether it will preclude subsequent publication elsewhere. Most issues have been addressed in the physical sciences/mathematics, where a submission to arXiv is credited as establishing priority and subsequent journal publication. Many life science journals (e.g. Science, Nature, eLIFE, PNAS, others) will accept manuscripts that have been submitted earlier to a pre-print repository, although some journals still have ambiguous policies that may deter scientists. Overall, the co-existence of a pre-print system with a healthy journal system (which provides peer review, editorial work, commentaries, and many other valuable services) is workable within the physical science/mathematics community and it is likely viable for the life sciences as well.
The biggest challenge for pre-prints in biology is achieving a critical mass for take-off. Last year, for example, bioRxiv received 888 submissions compared to 98,517 for arXiv, even though many more papers are published in the life sciences. Most biologists either have never heard of bioRxiv/arXiv or are skeptical about whether pre-prints will be helpful for advancing their careers. For pre-print publishing in biology to become more attractive and more widely adopted, several changes would need to happen, including 1) first and foremost, the active encouragement from major funders (e.g. NIH, HHMI, Wellcome Trust, etc.) and acceptance of pre-prints for inclusion in grant applications (currently not the case for NIH, which requires peer review), 2) improved meta-discovery services for searching papers of interest in both pre-prints and journal publications, an increasing critical issue given the overwhelming amount of scientific literature, 3) removing barriers to subsequent publication in all biology journals, and 4) having successful mid-career and senior scientists deposit their best work first as pre-prints, and through such leadership, help gain acceptance for the idea.
Creating a new and truly short journal format- “Key Finding”
A pre-print server provides a solution for improving the ease and speed of scientific communication, but it does not necessarily address the trend in the escalating amount of data needed for publications in journals (Fig. 1). Many journals now have “short” communications (e.g. Nature Letters, Science Reports, J. Cell Biology Reports, Current Biology Dispatches). However, their guidelines have primarily curtailed the number of words rather than the amount of data, as researchers find creative ways of stuffing more and more into the allowable number of figures and supplemental online material (noting the obvious element of irony, please see supplemental Fig. S1 for the amount of data included in Nature Letters and JCB Reports). It is worthwhile considering introducing a new journal format whose focus is on limiting data more than text. One could imagine a format limited to 8 panels arranged in up to 4 figures and with no Supplemental Data. One of the figures could be identified as the “Key Finding”, with a text box describing why it contains the cornerstone result of the article. Is it possible to convey good science in such a restricted format? It was possible 30 or more years ago (this idea is effectively the Nature Letter or Science Report of the past), so it should be now.
Creating a new journal format that can live alongside existing formats has certain advantages over creating new journals. The reputation of a new journal within the scientific community takes many years to establish. However, a new format (or peer review mechanism) has the potential of permeating throughout the publishing world, from the elite to the specialized journals, provided that it is popular among authors and the readership. The lateral spread of a new type of journal feature has occurred many times, examples being cover art, shorter article formats, commentaries, mini-reviews, and supplemental material.
Conclusions
We may be approaching a breaking point in the publication process in the life sciences. The analysis of graduate students presented here suggests that the average time to first author publication has ratcheted upwards and is now approaching the length of Ph.D. training. Furthermore, the strong desire of investigators and their trainees to publish in high profile journals, the requirements of US graduate programs (implicit or explicit) for Ph.D. candidates to publish a first-author paper, the inability to include submitted but unaccepted manuscripts in grant applications, and the hopes of federal agencies to shorten scientific training periods are all coming into conflict with the ground realities of the present day scientific communication system. In addition to scientific training, important elements of scientific culture also stand to gain from improving the practices and timing of publication, including better evaluation practices for promotion and regaining an open atmosphere of communicating unpublished results at scientific meetings.
Changing the status quo appears daunting if not impossible, particularly to many young scientists who feel frustrated by the present publication system. It is easy to assign the fault to the journals, but such blame is misplaced and diverts attention from where the lion’s share of the responsibility lies—in our own life sciences community. As scientists, we need to define our culture and take ownership in developing a system that best suits our needs and the public’s needs in communicating our research results. We have not done so, at least not yet. Optimistically, change can happen if our community sets its mind to the task.
As is often the case, it is easier to articulate the problem than derive an effective solution. One idea discussed here for accelerating publication in the life sciences is the wide-spread adoption of electronic pre-prints. Mechanisms for submitting pre-prints already exist; however, with everyone standing at the shore and very few people willing to jump in, the water looks cold and uninviting. Thus, a challenge for this idea becomes changing behavior on a massive scale, which requires removing barriers and providing better incentives for pre-print publishing. Others may feel that reform of the existing journal system (better and more transparent reviewing, better evaluation metrics) might suffice without resorting to a pre-print server or other new model. But how effective will these reforms be without implementing new incentives for currently overwhelmed scientific referees and will they be sufficient to truly change the “daily lives” of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows? Perhaps we need to experiment and develop something entirely new, the system that we truly want in long run, and thinking through how to get there from where we are. To discuss and debate these issues, it might be an opportune time to hold a meeting of major stakeholders (young and senior scientists, government officials, university administrators, philanthropists, and journal editors) specifically to discuss the issue of communicating scientific results. The most important stakeholder in this discussion is the National Institute of Health, which has already greatly influenced publication practices by requiring its grantees to abide by public access policies. Since the NIH is deeply interested in 1) promoting rapid and open access to scientific results, and 2) advancing the career paths of its trainees, the topic of accelerating and reforming scientific communication should be of great interest to them. Indeed, everyone will likely step into the water together with new pre-publication and/or publication practices if the NIH determines that it serves the greater good of the scientific community and the nation’s research agenda. Through thoughtful discussion, engagement and action, our system of scientific communication can be guided to meet the current needs, challenges and exciting opportunities in the life sciences.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Walter Huynh, Courtney Schroeder, and Phoebe Grigg for their considerable help with the publication analysis presented in this paper. I also thank Ron Germain, Satyajit Mayor, Richard Sever, and Harold Varmus for their detailed comments on the manuscript.
