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The prehistory of biology preprints: A forgotten experiment from the 1960s

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  • Matthew Cobb

Abstract

In 1961, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began to circulate biological preprints in a forgotten experiment called the Information Exchange Groups (IEGs). This system eventually attracted over 3,600 participants and saw the production of over 2,500 different documents, but by 1967, it was effectively shut down following the refusal of journals to accept articles that had been circulated as preprints. This article charts the rise and fall of the IEGs and explores the parallels with the 1990s and the biomedical preprint movement of today.

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  • Matthew Cobb, 2017. "The prehistory of biology preprints: A forgotten experiment from the 1960s," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-12, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pbio00:2003995
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003995
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    1. Vincent Larivière & Cassidy R. Sugimoto & Benoit Macaluso & Staša Milojević & Blaise Cronin & Mike Thelwall, 2014. "arXiv E-prints and the journal of record: An analysis of roles and relationships," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(6), pages 1157-1169, June.
    2. Rob Kling & Lisa B. Spector & Joanna Fortuna, 2004. "The real stakes of virtual publishing: The transformation of E‐Biomed into PubMed central," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 55(2), pages 127-148, January.
    3. Paul Ginsparg, 2011. "ArXiv at 20," Nature, Nature, vol. 476(7359), pages 145-147, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mario Malički & IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg & Lex Bouter & Gerben ter Riet, 2019. "Journals’ instructions to authors: A cross-sectional study across scientific disciplines," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Tom Narock & Evan B. Goldstein, 2019. "Quantifying the Growth of Preprint Services Hosted by the Center for Open Science," Publications, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-14, June.
    3. B. Preedip Balaji & M. Dhanamjaya, 2019. "Preprints in Scholarly Communication: Re-Imagining Metrics and Infrastructures," Publications, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, January.
    4. Ivan Kodvanj & Jan Homolak & Davor Virag & Vladimir Trkulja, 2022. "Publishing of COVID-19 preprints in peer-reviewed journals, preprinting trends, public discussion and quality issues," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1339-1352, March.
    5. Olivier Pourret & Dasapta Erwin Irawan & Jonathan P. Tennant, 2020. "On the Potential of Preprints in Geochemistry: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-6, April.

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