BETHESDA, MD - November 11, 2014

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) announced today that it is partnering with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Press to assist authors in submitting unpublished manuscripts to bioRxiv, a fast-growing preprint server for the life sciences.

GENETICS and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, the journals of the GSA, will this month enable authors to submit a manuscript for peer review to either journal and, simultaneously, to post the manuscript as a preprint on bioRxiv. The bioRxiv preprint will be immediately available to the public, citable via a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), and open for reader comments and feedback.

This simple, optional transfer is available through Bench>Press, HighWire's electronic manuscript submission and peer-review system. Using a streamlined Bench>Press workflow developed by HighWire for bioRxiv, author manuscripts are immediately available to the scientific community for feedback as they are submitted for peer review. For those manuscripts that go on to be accepted by either GSA journal, bioRxiv will feature an updated link to the final version of the article, which incorporates revisions from the formal peer-review and peer-editing process.

"With preprint deposits, scientists can communicate their findings earlier, whether they seek feedback, collaboration, or to spread the news of their latest work," says Stephen I. Wright, PhD, Senior Editor for Population and Evolutionary Genetics at G3, GENETICS Associate Editor, and Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. "Hearing about and receiving feedback on the very latest work prior to publication was historically the domain only of scientific meetings, but preprint archives now allow for continual rapid dissemination and feedback. In the end, when combined with formal peer-review and peer-editing, the reach, findings, and impact of the science ends up even stronger."

Welcoming the announcement, John R. Inglis, PhD, Executive Director and Publisher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory says: "In just a year, bioRxiv has become, for many scientists working in genetics and genomics, a significant source of new information in preprint form. So we are delighted that GENETICS and G3, the journals of the forward-looking Genetics Society of America, are the first to partner with bioRxiv to give authors the chance to rapidly share their findings and readers an early opportunity to critically evaluate new observations in their field."

"We're thrilled to participate in this initiative, in particular because many of our authors already use bioRxiv, especially in population and evolutionary genetics" says Tracey DePellegrin, Executive Editor for the GSA Journals. "It's about listening to members of the research community and figuring out ways to help disseminate and discuss their work. Authors who choose to deposit their work in bioRxiv will enjoy greater visibility and feedback and, if the submitted manuscript progresses to peer-review, the benefits of thoughtful, thorough review and peer-editing. This partnership reflects our commitment to fostering open conversations about science, while at the same time, underscoring the importance of academic editors as peers. Our practicing scientist editors synthesize peer-reviews into a letter that clearly lets authors know what is expected in a revised manuscript. Manuscript deposits in bioRxiv allow early and open discussions on the work, including conversations about the evolution of an initial manuscript draft into a published research article."

About the Genetics Society of America (GSA)
Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is the professional scientific society for genetics researchers and educators. The Society's more than 5,000 members worldwide work to deepen our understanding of the living world by advancing the field of genetics, from the molecular to the population level. GSA promotes research and fosters communication through a number of GSA-sponsored conferences including regular meetings that focus on particular model organisms. GSA publishes two peer-reviewed, peer-edited scholarly journals: GENETICS, which has published high quality original research across the breadth of the field since 1916, and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, an open-access journal launched in 2011 to disseminate high quality foundational research in genetics and genomics. The Society also has a deep commitment to education and fostering the next generation of scholars in the field. For more information about GSA: press@genetics-gsa.org | www.genetics-gsa.org  | Twitter: @GeneticsGSA

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. CSHL is ranked number one in the world by Thomson Reuters for the impact of its research in molecular biology and genetics. The Laboratory has been home to eight Nobel Prize winners. Today, CSHL's multidisciplinary scientific community is more than 600 researchers and technicians strong and its Meetings & Courses program hosts more than 12,000 scientists from around the world each year to its Long Island campus and its China center. Hundreds of thousands of scientists worldwide benefit from the research, reviews, and ideas published in journals, books, and electronic media distributed internationally by CSHL Press. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu  | Twitter: @CSHLnews

About HighWire
Through its innovative Open Platform, HighWire provides technology solutions to more than 140 influential societies, university presses, and independent publishing organizations which produce thousands of high-impact journals, books, and other scholarly materials. In addition to digital content development and hosting services, strategic consultation services, and unique community networking opportunities, HighWire offers publishers a highly customizable peer-review manuscript submission system, Bench>Press, which handles more than 800K registered users, nearly 100K submissions per year for more than 65 high impact journals. Long affiliated with Stanford University, the now independent HighWire Press, Inc. is based in Redwood City, California.  www.highwire.org  | Twitter: @highwirepress