Preprints are publications by researchers about preliminary observations and findings that have not yet been reviewed and verified by other scientists (as opposed to peer-reviewed papers that are published in scientific journals.)
The Preprint Sifter makes it simple and easy for anyone to access these sources of expert assessment in real time. By curating authoritative tweets on Twitter, and gathering and publishing curated collections once a week, the Sifter helps journalists, policy makers and the public put individual studies, initial observations and preliminary findings in context, and understand the limitations of and potential errors in preprints.
In this pandemic, preprints have become a key way for scientists around the world to share new information quickly and openly with each other. This has enabled experts to speed up the scientific process and exchange observations rapidly amidst great uncertainty, contributing to the generation of better evidence. At the same time, preprints have become a source of misinformation and confusion, as their initial findings have been taken out of context and misinterpreted, and as preprints as a tool have been abused by those hoping to stir chaos and conflict, peddle their products and businesses, or drive towards false messages for political gain.
The Preprint Sifter was created by a multi-disciplinary team, in collaboration with Journalist’s Resource at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. You can get in touch with us here.
We created the Preprint Sifter to enable all of us to look at preprints the way experts do. To share their thinking and process as they assess and vet evidence, so we can all be better informed about where we are in understanding the virus, it’s spread and the various ways in which it makes people sick. And so we can all spot misinformation and attempts to manipulate our understanding of and behaviour in this pandemic. We hope you find it helpful.