Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 (RR:C19) is an open-access, rapid-review overlay journal that will accelerate peer review of Covid-19-related research.

AI Model Sources Peer-Reviewed Information on COVID-19

It seems that even though good news about the COVID-19 virus is hard to come by lately, still, we managed to find some over the weekend. It was an article from  news.mit.edu that announced a new avenue to get straight answers about this virus and the progress being made scientifically to combat it. A news release from MIT announced:

“Using artificial intelligence tools, a global team will identify promising scholarship in preprint repositories, commission expert peer reviews, and publish the results on an open access platform in a completely transparent process. The journal will strive for disciplinary and geographic breadth, sourcing manuscripts from all regions and across a wide variety of fields, including medicine; public health; the physical, biological, and chemical sciences; the social sciences; and the humanities. RR:C19 will also provide a new publishing option for revised papers that are positively reviewed.”

The MIT Press  said the launch of Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 (RR:C19), an open-access, rapid-review overlay journal, will speed up peer review of COVID-19-related research and deliver verified data for policymakers and health leaders to use.

Scientists and researchers are working daily to understand the SARS-CoV-2 virus and are producing an unprecedented amount of preprint research available online, but not analyzed by peer review for accuracy. Traditionally, that takes a month or more to complete, but RR:C19’s editorial team, led by Editor-in-Chief Stefano M. Bertozzi, professor of health policy and management and dean emeritus of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley, will craft expert reviews in days.

“Offering a peer-reviewed model on top of preprints will bring a level of diligence that clinicians, researchers, and others worldwide rely on to make sound judgments about the current crisis and its amelioration,” says Amy Brand, director of the MIT Press. “The project also aims to provide a proof-of-concept for new models of peer-review and rapid publishing for broader applications.”

While most broadcast and print media reports are reliable, social media is rife with false information. The AI model can verify scientific information to help researchers understand and beat the pandemic.

Using a $350,000 grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and hosted on PubPub, an open-source publishing platform from the Knowledge Futures Group for collaboratively editing and publishing journals, monographs, and other open access scholarly content, RR:C19 will limit the spread of misinformation about Covid-19, according to Bertozzi.

“This project signals a breakthrough in academic publishing, bringing together urgency and scientific rigor so the world’s researchers can rapidly disseminate new discoveries that we can trust,” says Vilas Dhar, trustee of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. “We are confident the RR:C19 journal will quickly become an invaluable resource for researchers, public health officials, and healthcare providers on the frontline of this pandemic. We’re also excited about the potential for a long-term transformation in how we evaluate and share research across all scientific disciplines.”

read more at news.mit.edu