The MIT Press and UC Berkeley launch Fast Evaluations: COVID-19 journal

The brand new open entry, rapid-review overlay journal goals to fight misinformation in COVID-19 analysis

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IMAGEIMAGE: RAPID REVIEWS: COVID-19, A NEW OPEN ACCESS, RAPID-REVIEW OVERLAY JOURNAL TO COMBAT MISINFORMATION IN COVID-19 RESEARCH view extra CREDIT: THE MIT PRESS

CAMBRIDGE, MA – June 29, 2020–The MIT Press introduced right now the launch of Fast Evaluations: COVID-19 (RR:C19), an open entry, rapid-review overlay journal that may speed up peer evaluation of COVID-19-related analysis and ship real-time, verified scientific info that policymakers and well being leaders can use.

Scientists and researchers are working time beyond regulation to know the SARS-CoV-2 virus and are producing an unprecedented quantity of preprint scholarship that’s publicly out there on-line however has not been vetted but by peer evaluation for accuracy. Conventional peer evaluation can take 4 or extra weeks to finish, however RR:C19’s editorial workforce, led by editor-in-chief, Stefano M. Bertozzi, Professor of Well being Coverage and Administration and Dean Emeritus of the College of Public Well being at College of California Berkeley, will produce skilled evaluations in a matter of days.

Utilizing synthetic intelligence instruments, a worldwide workforce will establish promising scholarship in preprint repositories, fee skilled peer evaluations, and publish the outcomes on an open entry platform in a very clear course of. The journal will attempt for disciplinary and geographic breadth, sourcing manuscripts from all areas and throughout all kinds of fields, together with medication; public well being; the bodily, organic, and chemical sciences; the social sciences; and the humanities. RR:C19 may also present a brand new publishing choice for revised papers which might be positively reviewed.

Made attainable by a $350,000 grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Basis and hosted on PubPub, an open-source publishing platform from the Information Futures Group for collaboratively modifying and publishing journals, monographs, and different open entry scholarly content material, RR:C19 will restrict the unfold of misinformation about COVID-19, in keeping with editor-in-chief Bertozzi.

“There’s an pressing must validate–or debunk–the quickly rising quantity of COVID-19-related manuscripts on preprint servers,” explains Bertozzi. “I’m excited to be working with the MIT Press, the Patrick J. McGovern Basis, and the Information Futures Group to create a novel publishing mannequin that has the potential to extra effectively translate necessary scientific outcomes into motion. We’re additionally working with COVIDScholar, an initiative of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Lab, to create distinctive AI/machine studying instruments to assist the evaluation of lots of of preprints per week.”

“This mission alerts a breakthrough in tutorial publishing, bringing collectively urgency and scientific rigor so the world’s researchers can quickly disseminate new discoveries that we are able to belief,” says Vilas Dhar, trustee of the Patrick J. McGovern Basis. “We’re assured the RR:C19 journal will rapidly turn out to be a useful useful resource for researchers, public well being officers, and healthcare suppliers on the frontline of this pandemic. We’re additionally excited concerning the potential for a long-term transformation in how we consider and share analysis throughout all scientific disciplines.”

On the collaboration round this new journal, Travis Wealthy, government director of the Information Futures Group notes, “At a second when credibility is more and more essential to the well-being of society, we’re thrilled to be partnering with this modern journal to increase the concept of evaluations as first-class analysis objects, each on PubPub and as a mannequin for others.”

Amy Model, director of the MIT Press sees the no-cost open entry mannequin as a option to enhance the affect of world analysis and disseminate high-quality scholarship. “Providing a peer-reviewed mannequin on high of preprints will deliver a stage of diligence that clinicians, researchers, and others worldwide depend on to make sound judgments concerning the present disaster and its amelioration,” says Model. “The mission additionally goals to supply a proof-of-concept for brand spanking new fashions of peer-review and speedy publishing for broader functions.”

The editorial board for RR:C19 at the moment contains Paulin Basinga, Gates Basis; Nancy Birdsall, Heart for International Growth; Jeanine Apartment, Nationwide College of Rwanda; Robert Gallo, College of Maryland; Dean Jamison, College of Washington; Jerome Kim, Worldwide Vaccine Institute; Santiago Levy, The Brookings Establishment; Fenyong Liu, UC Berkeley; Felix Masiye, College of Zambia, College of Washington; Jonna Mazet, UC Davis; Shankar Sastry, UC Berkeley; and Mauro Schechter, Federal College of Rio de Janeiro, College of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins College. RR:C19 will publish its first evaluations in July 2020 and is actively recruiting potential reviewers and contributors.

To study extra about this mission, go to: rapidreviewscovid19.mitpress.mit.edu

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From EurekAlert!

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