Preprint server bioRxiv receives additional major funding

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y., Aug. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) announced today that its free, not-for-profit preprint service bioRxiv (pronounced "bio-Archive") has received generous additional financial support.  

In the three years since bioRxiv began, biomedical scientists have warmly embraced the sharing of results as preprints prior to formal publication. Submissions to bioRxiv are growing at an increasingly rapid rate, with more than 1 million article views each month.  bioRxiv currently hosts more than 5,500 manuscripts featuring the work of 23,500 scientists from more than 40 countries.

The additional funding for bioRxiv was provided by Dr. Robert Lourie, a Trustee of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Head of Futures Research at Renaissance Technologies.  This is the second gift Dr. Lourie has made to the service since its inception and is an addition to his recent $2 million pledge in support of the Laboratory's endowment. 

The president of the Laboratory, Dr. Bruce Stillman, gratefully acknowledged today's gift, saying "Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory launched bioRxiv three years ago to assist and accelerate the research community's dissemination and discussion of new scientific results. For over 80 years, scientists worldwide have come to Cold Spring Harbor to share and debate their work with peers.  bioRxiv is a crucial extension of the Laboratory's mission in the digital age and we're delighted that Dr. Lourie shares our vision of its value to the progress of science."

Dr. Lourie emphasized his personal interest in the service and continued commitment to bioRxiv, adding, "As a former physics professor, I know how important rapid dissemination of preprints has been to physics, math, and computer science. I am very happy to be able to support bioRxiv in its quest to make preprints as vital in biomedicine as they have become in the physical sciences."

Dr. John Inglis, executive director of CSHL Press and co-founder of bioRxiv with Dr. Richard Sever, expressed his appreciation of Dr. Lourie's support. "The biomedical research community's embrace of bioRxiv is one of the most important changes we've seen in science communication in decades.  It has sparked widespread discussion of the role of preprints in the evaluation of new research, the assessment of scientists for grants and academic positions, and the importance of feedback to authors on their work before publication.  The additional funding from Dr. Lourie will help drive our continued advocacy for preprints and key technical enhancements, including further integration of bioRxiv with the scholarly communication ecosystem."

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

SOURCE Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

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