Dear Editor,
On behalf of the authors of the AMWA-EMWA-ISMPP joint position statement on medical publications, preprints, and peer review, I would like to respond to R Sever’s comments, expressed in his letter appearing in this issue of CMRO.
We thank Dr. Sever for recognizing the spirit in which the recommendations were put forth and in acknowledging our efforts as a first step. The joint position statement is a starting point for dialogue, with the intent to initiate discussion and create awareness of our concerns about potential erosion of the quality and integrity of published scientific findings. Some of these concerns apply to traditional peer-reviewed manuscripts (per our citation of two articles in high-ranking peer-reviewed journals), as well as those generated by preprints or post-publication peer review.
Our intent is to be solution-oriented, and we want to highlight that we mention medRxiv and bioRxiv as examples of responsible preprint publishing. Unfortunately, not all preprint servers apply the same standards.
It will be interesting to see whether the acceleration of publication, and its consequences, in response to a global health crisis will be, or should be, discouraged. Perhaps we should mitigate unintended harm by establishing new standards- as mentioned in the joint position statement- jointly developed by a convened body of stakeholders, to better ensure the quality and integrity of scientific publications that are released by accelerated means, such as preprints.
The input of Dr. Sever and other concerned colleagues are welcomed in efforts to develop and establish these standards.