 scientific manuscripts which have not yet been subjected to complete peer review, which are typically uploaded at the same time as their submission to a scientific journal, these manuscripts are called preprints. By hosting work in progress, arXiv.org (and other preprint servers) facilitate rapid communication of new results, discoveries and ideas. In contrast to scientific journals, which take months or years to publish newly submitted work, preprint servers take only a matter of days. While many other fields have begun to adopt preprint servers , their use is by no means ubiquitous in the OoL and astrobiology communities. This provides an opportunity for those communities, we can make a push (following suit from traditional biology) to make use of preprint servers to improve the availability of our science immediately.
One of the key benefits of preprints, is the ability for scientists to get feedback on their work faster than through journal mediated peer review. In order for that to be productive, scientists must be willing to dedicate more of their time to reading, reviewing, critiquing and improving the work of their peers. Most scientists are already doing this by reviewing journal submissions, but adopting preprints means that scientists will have to go out of their way to improve the work of someone whom they might be directly competing with. This might appear as a naive waste of time for early career scientists, struggling to get ahead. However, in the face of rising pressure to publish, it is becoming clear that scientists are becoming increasingly collaborative . This willingness appears to be based on the fact that they can still receive credit for small contributions, allowing them to gain more publications, which are the gold standard of scientist's reputations. This suggests that if scientists were to receive some kind of useful credit for reviewing the work of others, in a meaningful and constructive manner, they would make time to do so. This provides an important opportunity to improve the quality of peer review. If we can establish a means to credit reviewers (in an easily quantifiable manner) for their contributions, everyone will benefit.
While preprints are not always peer reviewed, they provide free and open access to articles which have been subjected to peer reviewed. This is because most journals, including Nature, Science and PNAS, allow submissions of articles which have been posted to preprint servers. There is a demand among scientists for easier access to all types of articles. This demand is evidenced by the wide spread use of the scientific piracy cite Sci-Hub . It appears that even academics with institutional access are using the the site, which blatantly violates a number of intellectual property policies, because it is easier, more convenient and more intuitive than accessing the articles through publishers. While this is clearly a missed opportunity on the part of journals and publishers, it demonstrates that scientists are craving access to content quickly and conveniently. Preprints provide access in this manner, and they are easily searchable via common search engines such as Google Scholar, which helps authors increase (legal) visibility of their work, without having to foot the bill for an open access journal.
How can we exploit the opportunities to solve the problems?
It is becoming clear that there is a demand for new modes of scientific discourse. The current journal-centric paradigm in place is slowing down peer review and limiting access to scientific content, while devaluing diligent and constructive peer review. Arxiv.org is a clear example of the power and utility of preprints, but widespread adoption of preprints alone will not solve some of these key problems. Scientists need to be incentivised to critique and improve other people's work. In order to do that, scientific articles must be easily accessible, and scientists must be able to communicate rapidly and freely.
I suggest that astrobiologists and origin of life researchers work together to develop a new collabor