The prehistory of biology preprints: A forgotten experiment from the 1960s

Abstract

In 1961, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began to circulate biological preprints in a forgotten experiment called the Information Exchange Groups (IEGs). This system eventually attracted over 3,600 participants and saw the production of over 2,500 different documents, but by 1967, it was effectively shut down following the refusal of journals to accept articles that had been circulated as preprints. This article charts the rise and fall of the IEGs and explores the parallels with the 1990s and the biomedical preprint movement of today.

Fig 1

(A) Errett C. Albritton, MD (1890–1984), in 1948. Biographical information about Albritton is scant. For much of his career he was Professor of Physiology at the George Washington University Medical School, where he specialized in nutrition science. He later joined the NIH, where he worked in the Office of Research Accomplishments. In 1961, aged 70, he became the cofounder of preprints in the biosciences. Credit: Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, George Washington University. (B) David E. Green, PhD (1910–1983), in 1961. Green was a biochemist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, focusing on oxidative phosphorylation. This was the topic of the first IEG, which he cocreated and described as ‘one of the most revolutionary innovations in the history of science communication’ [9]. A biographical memoir described Green as ‘one of the giants of 20th century biochemistry…a complex person who had an extraordinary personality’. It makes no mention of his support for preprints [14]. Courtesy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Archives (ID S14597). IEG, Information Exchange Group; NIH, National Institutes of Health.

Fig 2. Letter from Albritton to Crick, January 1961 [10].

Credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archive.

Fig 3. Growth of IEG1 1961–1965, as reported by Albritton [15].

Credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archive. IEG, Information Exchange Group.