The Attitude of Pharmaceutical Industry Research Scientists to Browsing and Publishing on Internet Preprint and E-Print Servers

Electronic journals and publications are widely consulted by researchers today but paper and electronic publishing have different pros and cons. We studied the attitude of Sanofi-Synthelabo researchers to browsing and publishing on Internet preprint and e-print servers. Preprint is defined as: a manuscript that has been peer-reviewed and is awaiting publication in a traditional journal, a paper electronically posted in a server for peer consideration and comment before submission for publication, or a manuscript for which no publication decision has yet been reached. E-print is defined as: an electronic paper posted in a peer-review-free server that can be updated by the author at any time, or an electronic paper archived by the author and circulated outside the traditional publishing environment. We sent a questionnaire to 80 research scientists (in chemistry and pharmacology) in eight Sanofi-Synthelabo research centers in Europe and the United States. The survey showed that researchers particularly appreciate the many advantages of these publications. However, they would seldom consider submitting their own papers to e-print servers rather than to a traditional peer-reviewed journal or server. Although Sanofi-Synthelabo researchers tend to regard nonpeer-reviewed data as secondary or unreliable, they nevertheless admit that information published on preprint or ePrint servers could lead them to modify a research project. In conclusion, researchers like to keep up with the rapid developments of electronic publishing, and utilize these new electronic sources of information, but they take a critical approach to content quality. Publishing their own papers by these new routes is not considered an option because of intellectual property questions.