Article: “The Prehistory of Biology Preprints: A Forgotten Experiment From the 1960s”
The following article was recently published by PLOS Biology.
Title
Prehistory Of Biology Preprints: A Forgotten Experiment From the 1960s
Author
Matthew Cobb
University of Manchester
Source
PLoS Biol15(11): e2003995
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003995
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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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.