About the Journal

BEC preprints

BEC preprints is a non-commercial, Open Access online distribution service for unpublished preprints in mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. Before posting preprints on BEC preprints, authors should clarify if the journal intended for final publication accepts manuscripts published as preprints in BEC preprints. Today scientists may decide to submit manuscripts exclusively to journals which accept the concept of preprints.

Overview

  • BEC preprints is linked to the journal Bioenergetics Communications.
  • An article must be submitted to BEC preprints before it is accepted by a journal. If an article has been submitted to a journal but not yet been accepted for publication, it can be submitted to BEC preprints.
  • BEC preprints started 2019-Feb-12 under the name 'MitoFit Preprint Archives', inspired by the classic Preprint server arXiv (Paul Ginsparg, 1991). arXiv receives preprint publications from >100,000 coauthors per year, mainly in physics, mathematics, and chemistry. arXiv is frequently cited in the following context.
  • BEC preprints is hosted, maintained and operated by the MitoFit DOI Data Center with guidance by the BEC preprints advisory board.

Scope

The areas covered in BEC preprints include mitochondrial physiology, bioenergetics and ergodynamics. We recommend other preprint servers for manuscripts which do not belong to areas covered by BEC preprints.
  • Format: manuscripts in English

Policies and Ethics

Conflict of interest / Disclaimer:

  • BEC preprints is operated by the team of Oroboros Instruments. Guidance by the expanding Member and Scientific Advisory Boards adds to our mission of handling submissions on a non-commercial basis, independent of the use of any products related to commercial interests of scientific organizations and companies including Oroboros Instruments.

The Digital Object Identifier:

  • Manuscripts published Open Access (exclusively scientific research content; not peer reviewed) in BEC preprints are fully citable, each with a unique DOI number:
    • doi:10.26124/becprep.YYYY-####
  • Once a DOI number has been assigned to a preprint including supplementary material, it cannot be changed, except for comments posted on the preprint page. A preprint version can be removed only in exceptional cases, clarified on an individual basis.
  • Open Access preprints (not peer-reviewed) are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License BY-NC-ND license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited. © remains with the authors, who have granted BEC preprints an Open Access preprint licence in perpetuity.
  • BEC preprints support the FAIR principles of Findable, Accessable, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR Principles)
  • Disclaimer: "Papers will be entered in the listings in order of receipt on an impartial basis and appearance of a paper is not intended in any way to convey tacit approval of its assumptions, methods, or conclusions by any agent (electronic, mechanical, or other). We reserve the right to reject any inappropriate submissions" (citation from arXiv).

Moderation:

  • BEC preprints reserves the right to remove any articles that contain any material published without author consent, without an appropriate declaration of conflicts of interest, plagiarized material or describe experimental work that is not performed in accordance with the ethical standards for research using animals or human subjects.
  • Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication in a scientific journal, BEC preprints accepts an updated new preprint version only in line with the policies of the specific scientific journal. As soon as a preprint has been published as a final manuscript on the website of a journal, the full citation is added to the preprint page in BEC preprints. It is the obligation of the corresponding author to immediately inform the editor(s) of BEC preprints on the full citation.
  • It is not appropriate to copy text from articles published by the same group or by others. - Citron DT, Ginsparg P (2015) Patterns of text reuse in a scientific corpus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112:25-30. - »Bioblast link«
  • References to methods papers should inform about original publications. It is inappropriate to refer in the methods section to a previous paper, where reference is made to another paper.

Open Access Acknowledgements:

  • To promote transparency, BEC preprints encourages Open Access to relevant scientific contributions of acknowledged persons, even though it may not be possible to provide a fully balanced account of the correspondence and personal discussions.
  • Authors may choose to submit an additional file with contributors comments to be posted on the website. See »Gnaiger 2021 MitoFit BCA - Acknowledgements« for an example.
  • Consent must be obtained by the author from contributors before submitting to BEC preprints for inclusion online.

Commentaries

  • What does arXiv say?
  • Drama-free: "arXiv has very vocal users who are not just mildly negative about comment threads, but adamantly opposed to having them mediated via the main site. This attitude was recently reinforced by a broad user survey. Authors regard the drama-free minimalist dissemination as a prominent virtue, which contributes to arXiv’s success." - Ginsparg P (2017) Preprint Déjà Vu: an FAQ. arXiv:1706.04188. - »Bioblast link«
  • Authors may invite members of the 'Scientific advisory board' to join a scientific discussion, which may be published as a BEC Commentary with independent DOI.
  • Readers and journal clubs are encouraged to discuss preprints with the original authors, to submit a BEC Commentary with independent DOI.
  • Avasthi P, Soragni A, Bembenek JN (2018) Point of View: Journal clubs in the time of preprints. eLife 7:e38532. - »Bioblast link«
  • Sarabipour S, Debat HJ, Emmott E, Burgess SJ, Schwessinger B, Hensel Z (2019) On the value of preprints: An early career researcher perspective. PLoS Biol 17(2):e3000151. - »Bioblast link«
  • Commentaries are an integral concept of preprints and can contribute to the advancement of science. Editors will forward Commentaries to the authors of a preprint or a corresponding publication, to provide the option of a joint commentary before it is posted on BEC prep.
  • Superficial comments are not posted on BEC preprints websites. Comments submitted without adhering to the format of a Commentary may simply be forwarded to the authors of a preprint.
  • Links to BEC Commentaries are added to the corresponding preprint website.