News Release

The Company of Biologists launches preLights

preLights is a preprint highlighting service run by the biological community

Business Announcement

The Company of Biologists

Cambridge, UK: The Company of Biologists has launched preLights, the new preprint highlighting service run by the biological community. Our dedicated team of scientists select, highlight and comment on preprints they feel are of particular interest to the biological community. preLights features a summary of each preprint, the reasons it was selected and the selector's thoughts on its significance. Where available we also include relevant comments from preprint authors.

A preprint can be defined as an early version of a scientific paper, often posted on a preprint server before being published in a scientific journal. In biological sciences, the number of preprints has grown substantially over the past few years. Dr O. Claire Moulton, publisher at The Company of Biologists says: "As the number of preprints grows, we believe this service will help the community find and discuss the most relevant research coming through."

Readers can visit preLights to:

  • discover select recent preprints across the biological sciences
  • see the comments and opinions of other researchers, including preprint authors
  • join in the conversation
  • sign up for alerts

The Company of Biologists facilitates this service, but the posts and views represent those of the community of biological sciences. The service is being received enthusiastically by the community, with some Twitter comments being as follows: "Wonderful! This is a game changer", "It looks fantastic!", "I do like the 'Author's Response' section", "great initiative" and "Showing how preprints allow for the evolution of the scientific publishing model".

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About The Company of Biologists: The Company of Biologists exists to support and inspire the biological community. We do this through our publications, events and grants. The growth of preprints gives us a new opportunity to promote the exchange of scientific ideas and to back the work of young scientists.


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