Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to boost sharing of global scientific research in collaboration with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y., April 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) today announced a new collaboration with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) that will help accelerate the understanding of life science for the benefit of human health and disease.

New funding from CZI will support the development and expansion of CSHL's bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-archive") preprint service, a free platform that enables life science researchers to quickly and easily share drafts of papers before they are published in peer-reviewed research journals.

It takes a significant amount of time for a research paper to be peer-reviewed and published, and important findings are often not widely available for months or years. Sharing research discoveries through a service like bioRxiv provides opportunities for scientists to solicit feedback, collaborate, and improve their research, in ways that complement the peer-review process.

"CSHL's historic commitment to widespread and effective dissemination of scientific knowledge continues with the growing momentum of bioRxiv. We are excited to join forces with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to ensure that the service has access to the most innovative enabling information technologies," said CSHL President & CEO Bruce Stillman, Ph.D.

"Preprints have been a mainstay of the scientific process for decades in math and computer science," said Cori Bargmann, Ph.D., President of Science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. "bioRxiv gave prominence to this practice in biology three years ago, and we are eager to support their work to expand free access and sustain this service into the future."

In only three years, bioRxiv has received 10,000 manuscripts from 55,000 authors in more than 90 countries. There are more than 1 million page views and downloads of these papers each month. bioRxiv also enables authors to submit posted manuscripts directly to a growing number of journals (currently 100) for certification through peer review. New funding from CZI builds on the initial investment by CSHL (a private, not-for-profit institution) and generous philanthropic support from CSHL Trustee Robert Lourie, to pioneer this free service.

CSHL and CZI are committed to sharing new tools in order to speed adoption and dissemination of preprints and optimize communication infrastructure in science. All software developed through this collaboration will be made available as open source.

"We have been so pleased with the enthusiasm for bioRxiv in the scientific community, and the relationship with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will enhance our ability to serve researchers," said bioRxiv co-founder Richard Sever, Ph.D. "Our collaboration will also enable us to promote discussion among experts in science, publishing, and information technology about more possibilities in the evolution of scientific communication."

"We are thrilled to bring expertise and vision from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to our goal of advancing the speed and efficiency of communication among scientists worldwide," said bioRxiv co-founder John Inglis, Ph.D. "With CZI's technical talent and their financial support, bioRxiv will be a sandbox for the exploration of new approaches to information exchange in the life sciences."

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,100 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. The Meetings & Courses Program hosts more than 12,000 scientists from around the world each year on its campuses in Long Island and in Suzhou, China. The Laboratory's education arm also includes an academic publishing house, a graduate school and programs for middle and high school students and teachers. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was launched in December 2015 by Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician and founder of The Primary School in East Palo Alto. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is dedicated to advancing human potential and promoting equal opportunity through grant making, impact investing, engineering, policy, and advocacy work. Initial areas of focus include science and education. For more information, visit chanzuckerberg.com.

© 2017 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. All Rights Reserved.

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