Grace Gachanja on her PrePrint Experiences at PeerJ

PrePrints continue to increase in popularity among academics, with a number of recent blog posts highlighting their utility (from ourselves, Stephen Curry, Liz Martin-Silverstone, Tim Gowers and Mike Taylor (twice) to name just a few). Given this level of interest, we thought it would be helpful to ask some of the authors of PeerJ PrePrints about their reasons for publishing their work in this way.

This is the seventh post in our series of guest blog posts highlighting PeerJ PrePrint authors and for this post we spoke to Grace Gachanja. Dr Gachanja is at Walden University and has has worked for the last eight years in various drug safety surveillance capacities in the biotechnology industry. She has published 10 articles in PeerJ PrePrints (and 2 in PeerJ).

Can you tell our readers a little bit about your research area?

My research area is in HIV disclosure, particularly that which concerns disclosing a parent’s and/or a child’s illness to HIV-negative and HIV-positive children within HIV-affected families.

Why did you decide to submit the draft of your article(s) to PeerJ PrePrints?

I first learnt about the preprint server from PeerJ staff last year when I submitted an article for peer review. It made sense to go ahead and submit my article as a preprint while it went through peer review so that my peers and other interested readers could start reading the article before it was formally published. Having the opportunity to resubmit updated versions of the preprint article alongside subsequent revisions of the peer-reviewed article that I had updated with the peer reviewers feedback was an added bonus so that I could keep the preprint article current at all times. Readers following the article could see its evolution and also learn from the process especially newly graduated students or those new to publishing.

What are the benefits to you personally of publishing your work as a PeerJ PrePrint prior to any formal peer review process?

Personally I am very pleased with the readership of my preprint articles. It is easy to submit the preprint and the article is available for public viewing in a very short time after submission. After it appears in print, readers start accessing it before formal publication of the peer reviewed version. The individual article metrics help to show what impact the article is making and also lets me know which of the preprints are resonating with readers.

I also submit my conference presentations and posters, as well as research briefs as preprints so that they can get a wider readership outside the conference attendees and associated members. Due to the great indexing of the preprints, I have noted that they get a wider audience/readership than the same articles, presentations, posters, and research briefs that I deposit in my research gate profile.

What would you say to anyone who had any doubts about publishing their draft article as a PeerJ PrePrint first?

I would encourage them to try at least one preprint and see if they like the experience. Chances are that they will like the experience of readers reading their research ahead of formal publication and I am sure they will also like the great customer service offered by PeerJ staff.