Cell Press Introduces Sneak Peek Initiative

Cell Press has its beginnings in 1974 when Benjamin Lewin founded Cell. Since then Cell Press has gone on to publish more than 30 academic research journals. Cell Press is an imprint of Elsevier and is committed to both excellence and innovation. It is the aim of Cell Press to engage the research community around ideas that have the potential to shape the future of research. As part of this drive to do new things while serving the academic research community, Cell Press journals are introducing Cell Press Sneak Peek.

Authors whose papers have been sent for peer review by Cell Press journals now have the option to share their work online before the final peer review decision has been made. The papers will be hosted in a special Sneak Peek group on Mendeley. The CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Cell Press, Emilie Marcus, says that Sneak Peek was born to address the frustration authors have with the length of time it takes to publish a paper. With Sneak Peek, authors can begin to get credit for their work months before it becomes available as a final publication.

When an author submits their research article to a Cell Press journal, they will be given the opportunity to decide if they would like to participate in the Cell Press Sneak Peek initiative. All authors who choose to be involved will have their work uploaded to the Sneak Peek group on Mendeley. The manuscript will be made available in a pdf format within a few business days after being sent for peer review. All papers in the Sneak Peek group will be freely available to all interested readers. In order to access the group, interested persons will first be required to register. Within the group, readers can post comments to which the authors can respond.

There have been some concerns over the validity of Cell Press Sneak Peek. Some researchers have questioned the need for Sneak Peek in an era of preprint servers. Others may be concerned that if they opt into Sneak Peek and their paper gets rejected, other journals may then refuse to publish the revised paper since they may equate Sneak Peek with prior publication. Emilie Marcus has addressed both these concerns by stating that authors can host their work on preprint servers, and opt into Sneak Peek—there are no restrictions on authors in this regard. She also stated that for many academic journals (including Cell Press journals) hosting the work on a preprint server no longer constitutes to prior publication. The Cell Press Sneak Peek could be a great way for members of the academic community to preview what their peers have been working on.