Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Patching Science – amending the literature through version control

View ORCID ProfileAdam Kane, View ORCID ProfileBawan Amin
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.13.487348
Adam Kane
1School of Biology and Environmental Science, O’Brien Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Adam Kane
  • For correspondence: adam.kane@ucd.ie
Bawan Amin
1School of Biology and Environmental Science, O’Brien Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Bawan Amin
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Data/Code
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Summary

The ideal of self-correction in science is not well served by the current culture and system surrounding amendments to published literature. Here we report on a survey (N = 132) that highlights academics’ dissatisfaction with the status quo and their support for an alternative approach. We then describe our view of how amendments could and should work by drawing on the idea of an author-led version control system. Here authors would include a link in their published manuscripts to an updatable website (e.g. a GitHub repository or similar) that could be disseminated in the event of any amendment. Such a system is already in place for computer code and, as such, requires nothing but buy-in from the scientific community - a community that is already evolving towards various open science frameworks. This would remove a number of frictions that discourage amendments thus leading to an improved scientific literature and a healthier academic climate.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://github.com/kanead/Corrections

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted April 14, 2022.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Data/Code
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Patching Science – amending the literature through version control
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Patching Science – amending the literature through version control
Adam Kane, Bawan Amin
bioRxiv 2022.04.13.487348; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.13.487348
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Patching Science – amending the literature through version control
Adam Kane, Bawan Amin
bioRxiv 2022.04.13.487348; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.13.487348

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Scientific Communication and Education
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4237)
  • Biochemistry (9147)
  • Bioengineering (6786)
  • Bioinformatics (24020)
  • Biophysics (12137)
  • Cancer Biology (9544)
  • Cell Biology (13795)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7642)
  • Ecology (11715)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15517)
  • Genetics (10650)
  • Genomics (14332)
  • Immunology (9492)
  • Microbiology (22856)
  • Molecular Biology (9103)
  • Neuroscience (49028)
  • Paleontology (355)
  • Pathology (1484)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2572)
  • Physiology (3848)
  • Plant Biology (8337)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1472)
  • Synthetic Biology (2296)
  • Systems Biology (6196)
  • Zoology (1302)