bioRxiv: Trends and analysis of five years of preprints

bioRxiv was founded on the premise that publicly posting preprints would allow authors to receive feedback and submit improved papers to journals. This paper analyses a number of trends against this stated purpose, namely, the timing of preprint postings relative to submission to accepting journals; trends in the rate of unpublished preprints over time; trends in the timing of publication of preprints by accepting journals; and trends in the concentration of published, reviewed preprints by publisher. Findings show that a steady c.30% of preprints remain unpublished and that the majority is posted onto bioRxiv close to or after submission – therefore giving no time for feedback to help improve the articles. Four publishers (Elsevier, Nature, PLOS, and Oxford University Press) account for the publication of 47% of bioRxiv preprints. Taken together, it appears that bioRxiv is not accomplishing its stated goals and that authors may be using the platform more to establish priority, as a marketing enhancement of papers, and as functional Green OA, rather than as a community‐driven source of prepublication review.     

The Frozen Archive,or Defrosting Derrida

What does freezing human tissue and fluids, or human remains, do to the mobility, temporality, and value of such objects? While Jacques Derrida toward the end of his life considered the consequences for the remainder of burial and cremation, he did not consider freezing, the production of latent or interrupted life. Here I invoke Derrida in discussion of how in the investigation of the fatal brain disease kuru, the partible tissues of the Fore people of Papua New Guinea became frozen spectral commodities in the exchange regimes of modern biomedical science – and how they gained, or retained, value as they were objectified. I follow these Fore – or kuru – valuables into the frozen archive, asking what has become of the remainder, whether it now amounts to anything more than defrosting debris among the postcolonial ruins. I ask what is the value of latent life? Or, rather, who is the value of latent life? This essay therefore serves as a supplement to more economistic estimates of biovalue.     

Using State Assessments for Predicting Student Success in Dual‐Enrollment College Classes

Scores on state standards‐based assessments are readily available and may be an appropriate alternative to traditional placement tests for assigning or accepting students into particular courses. Many community colleges do not require test scores for admissions purposes but do require some kind of placement scores for first‐year English and math courses. In this study, we examine the efficacy of using the reading and math portions of the Kansas State Assessment (KSA) for predicting the success of high school students taking College Algebra and College English I at a Kansas community college. Results showed that in this sample KSA scores predicted as well or better than more traditional placement tests and with no extra cost to the institution.