Hi Reddit, we’re Darla Henderson and Marshall Brennan of ACS Publications. Ask us anything about preprint servers such as ChemRxiv!

Abstract

ACS AMA Hi Reddit! Darla Henderson and Marshall Brennan here from ACS Publications! We are responsible for ChemRxiv a preprint server for chemistry launched in fully functioning beta form with strategic input from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the German Chemical Society (GDCh) as a community-led project. ChemRxiv allows researchers to post their early manuscripts – and all of the source data – online ahead of submission to a journal in order to facilitate discussion and feedback on the work prior to formal publication. ChemRxiv is taking a “data first” approach to preprints, and allows a wide (and growing!) array of different file types to be viewed and interacted with right from the browser. In the past six weeks, ChemRxiv has already helped to disseminate more than 82 preprint manuscripts and revisions prior to peer review on every subject from computational chemical theory to natural product synthesis. We believe that preprints accelerate research, increase transparency, and level the playing field for researchers across career stages and geography – and we’re looking to continue developing ChemRxiv in a way that best meets the community’s needs and expectations of such a tool. Darla Henderson, PhD: I am the Publisher and Asst. Director of Open Access in the Global Journals Development team of ACS Publications. I am responsible for the strategic and financial oversight of ACS’ open access programs and journals, and also co-conceived and oversaw the development of ChemRxiv. I joined ACS in 2008, where initially I oversaw the general and multidisciplinary chemistry journals portfolio, including JACS, and launched new journals such as ACS Catalysis. This followed a stint in book publishing at John Wiley & Sons. I have a PhD in organic/biological chemistry from Duke University. I previously co-hosted an AUA on “Open Access Chemistry” in early 2016 https://redd.it/42r7xk Marshall Brennan, PhD: I am the Publishing Manager at ChemRxiv; I oversee the day-to-day development and quality control of ChemRxiv. I earned my PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship at UT Austin. I spent a year and a half as an editor for Nature Chemistry before moving to the ACS to work on ChemRxiv. Ask us anything about preprint servers! We’ll be back at 1pm EDT (10am PDT, 5pm UTC) to start answering your questions.