Recommendations for accelerating open preprint peer review to improve the culture of science

Peer review is an important part of the scientific process, but traditional peer review at journals is coming under increased scrutiny for its inefficiency and lack of transparency. As preprints become more widely used and accepted, they raise the possibility of rethinking the peer-review process. Preprints are enabling new forms of peer review that have the potential to be more thorough, inclusive, and collegial than traditional journal peer review, and to thus fundamentally shift the culture of peer review toward constructive collaboration. In this Consensus View, we make a call to action to stakeholders in the community to accelerate the growing momentum of preprint sharing and provide recommendations to empower researchers to provide open and constructive peer review for preprints.

Embedding Physical Activity Guidance During Pregnancy and in Postpartum Care: 'This Mum Moves' Enhances Professional Practice of Midwives and Health Visitors

INTRODUCTION

The benefits of physical activity during pregnancy and after childbirth are well established, yet many health care professionals do not feel well equipped to provide physical activity guidance to these populations. As such, the objectives of this study were to explore the immediate and longer term effects of training on health care professionals' ability to provide physical activity guidance to pregnant women and new mothers (mums).

METHODS

Midwives and health visitors from 5 locations in the United Kingdom were provided with training on the Chief Medical Officers' physical activity guidelines for pregnancy and after childbirth (n = 393). Midwives and health visitors attended training to become This Mum Moves Ambassadors, then disseminated education to colleagues through a cascade training model. Changes in knowledge, confidence, and professional practice were assessed by survey before and immediately after training (n = 247), and follow-up surveys were completed 3 (n = 35) and 6 (n = 34) months posttraining.

RESULTS

At all posttraining time points, health care professionals reported a significant increase in their confidence to communicate about physical activity (P < .001). The reported frequency of having conversations about physical activity increased significantly 3 and 6 months following training compared with baseline (pregnant women, P = .017; new mums, P = .005). There were changes in the types of advice and resources offered by health care professionals and an overall increase in health care professionals' own reported physical activity levels.

DISCUSSION

The This Mum Moves cascade approach to delivering training in physical activity guidelines improved reported knowledge, confidence and professional practice of midwives and health visitors, both immediately following and 3 and 6 months after training.

COVID-19 Rapid Review cross-publisher initiative: What we have learned and what we are going to do next

The global crisis sparked collaboration between publishers and service providers to successfully address an immediate problem and demonstrated the possibility for future partnerships.

Encouraging experts to join a reviewer pool and quickly review the preprint and journal submissions, we were able to publish COVID‐19 research more quickly.

The initiative confirmed little author uptake of inter‐publisher journal transfer option.

The collaboration showed wide consensus on open science practices which will ensure faster and more reliable research findings.

Perioperative intravenous contrast administration and the incidence of acute kidney injury after major gastrointestinal surgery: prospective, multicentre cohort study

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to determine the impact of preoperative exposure to intravenous contrast for CT and the risk of developing postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery.

METHODS

This prospective, multicentre cohort study included adults undergoing gastrointestinal resection, stoma reversal or liver resection. Both elective and emergency procedures were included. Preoperative exposure to intravenous contrast was defined as exposure to contrast administered for the purposes of CT up to 7 days before surgery. The primary endpoint was the rate of AKI within 7 days. Propensity score-matched models were adjusted for patient, disease and operative variables. In a sensitivity analysis, a propensity score-matched model explored the association between preoperative exposure to contrast and AKI in the first 48 h after surgery.

RESULTS

A total of 5378 patients were included across 173 centres. Overall, 1249 patients (23·2 per cent) received intravenous contrast. The overall rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery was 13·4 per cent (718 of 5378). In the propensity score-matched model, preoperative exposure to contrast was not associated with AKI within 7 days (odds ratio (OR) 0·95, 95 per cent c.i. 0·73 to 1·21; P = 0·669). The sensitivity analysis showed no association between preoperative contrast administration and AKI within 48 h after operation (OR 1·09, 0·84 to 1·41; P = 0·498).

CONCLUSION

There was no association between preoperative intravenous contrast administered for CT up to 7 days before surgery and postoperative AKI. Risk of contrast-induced nephropathy should not be used as a reason to avoid contrast-enhanced CT.

Publishing peer review materials

Publishing peer review materials alongside research articles promises to make the peer review process more transparent as well as making it easier to recognise these contributions and give credit to peer reviewers. Traditionally, the peer review reports, editors letters and author responses are only shared between the small number of people in those roles prior to publication, but there is a growing interest in making some or all of these materials available. A small number of journals have been publishing peer review materials for some time, others have begun this practice more recently, and significantly more are now considering how they might begin. This article outlines the outcomes from a recent workshop among journals with experience in publishing peer review materials, in which the specific operation of these workflows, and the challenges, were discussed. Here, we provide a draft as to how to represent these materials in the JATS and Crossref data models to facilitate the coordination and discoverability of peer review materials, and seek feedback on these initial recommendations.

Measurement of the ZZ production cross section and limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge couplings in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s] = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the ZZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s] = 7 TeV using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.02 fb(-1) recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC is presented. Twelve events containing two Z boson candidates decaying to electrons and/or muons are observed, with an expected background of 0.3 ± 0.3(stat)(-0.3)(+0.4)(syst) events. The cross section measured in a phase-space region with good detector acceptance and for dilepton masses within the range 66 to 116 GeV is σ(ZZ → ℓ+ ℓ- ℓ+ ℓ-)(fid) = 19.4(-5.2)(+6.3)(stat)(-0.7)(+0.9)(syst) ± 0.7(lumi) fb. The resulting total cross section for on-shell ZZ production, σ(ZZ)(tot) = 8.5(-2.3)(+2.7)(stat)(-0.3)(+0.4)(syst) ± 0.3(lumi) pb, is consistent with the standard model expectation of 6.5(-0.2)(+0.3) pb calculated at the next-to-leading order in QCD. Limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings are derived.

5-Fluorouracil induces autophagic degeneration in rat oral keratinocytes

In this study, we investigated the effect of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on the keratinocytes of oral epithelium. Female Lewis rats were given 5-FU i.v. and were killed 12, 24 or 36 h after injection. The buccal mucosa was dissected. The number of nuclei with DNA strand breaks and the total number of nuclei per volume of the epithelial basal cell layer was estimated using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate (dUTP)-biotin nick end labeling. Epithelial cells were analysed by flow cytometry, transmission electron microscopy and a dye exclusion test. The number of cells with DNA strand breaks increased in 5-FU treated rats. Flow cytometry showed a decrease in cell size and an increase in granularity with increasing doses of 5-FU. Dye exclusion gave no indication of degenerate cell membranes. By transmission electron microscopy, the cells showed evidence of degeneration, shrinkage and loss of cell-to-cell contact. Vacuolation was extensive and, in contrast to apoptotic cells, nuclear chromatin condensation seemed to occur centrally in the nuclei. The results show that 5-FU treatment in vivo induces alterations in rat oral keratinocytes that are consistent with autophagic degeneration.

Risk assessment and management of new and existing chemicals

An evaluation was made of the recently developed risk assessment methodologies for new and existing chemicals in the European Communities. The evaluation also included the methodologies to prioritize chemicals and procedures for risk management, i.e., the (draft) guidance document for the development of strategies for risk reduction. The way in which chemicals are prioritized is accepted with only very few comments. Clear progress has been made in the development and harmonization of risk assessment methodologies and the application of estimation methodologies. Nevertheless, improvements are necessary for the estimation of consumer and occupational exposure, the derivation, use and transparency of assessment factors for chemicals and classes of chemicals based on the mode of toxic action, environmental exposure models and their validation and relation with monitoring data. As far as risk management is concerned it was recommended to improve the integration of the myriad of directives and regulations, to clarify definitions, to provide clear guidance on the determination and weighing of advantages and implications of risk reduction measures and to develop tools, including voluntary agreements, to speed up the slow chemical-by-chemical approach.

Anorexia nervosa and necrotizing colitis: case report and review of the literature

A 20 year old woman with anorexia nervosa and severe weight loss developed extensive necrotizing colitis after being admitted to hospital for stabilization of her weight. Necrotizing colitis with anorexia nervosa has been reported previously. We report a second case. We believe necrotizing colitis is a true complication of anorexia nervosa and should be considered in the differential diagnosis in patients with primary anorexia who develop an acute abdomen.

Effects of intraoral prosthetics on swallowing in patients with oral cancer

The swallowing patterns of four patients with oral cancer with intraoral palate reshaping/lowering protheses were studied with and without their prostheses 3 months postoperatively. The prostheses resulted in improved swallow efficiency, increased duration of tongue contact to the pharyngeal wall, and improved speed of movement of the bolus from the valleculae to the pyriform sinus. These results emphasize the effects of the tongue on the pharyngeal as well as oral stage of the swallow.

Acute renal failure following surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm

Between January 1974 and April 1986, 440 patients underwent elective or emergency repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms at this hospital. Acute renal failure requiring dialysis following repair occurred in 32 patients (7.3%) and form the basis of this report. All were male patients of mean age 69 years; 21 (66%) gave a history of other major medical problems and 19 (59%) used medication for these medical conditions. Twelve patients (37.5%) survived to leave hospital. No differences were observed between survivors and non-survivors with regard to age, previous medical condition, drug therapy, or creatinine value on admission. Mode of presentation, duration of surgery, frequency of hypotension and number of blood transfusions were similar in both groups. Total hospital stay and duration of intensive care were distributed equally between the two groups. Those who survived seemed to require less inotropic support and a shorter duration of ventilation than the non-survivors; the continued need for these support and persistent leucocytosis greater than 15,000/mm3 were associated with little chance of survival.

The diagnosis and treatment of lymphocoeles associated with renal transplantation. A report of 6 cases and a review of the literature

Six patients have developed a lymphocoele after renal transplantation, an incidence of 4%. A lymphocoele should be suspected in a patient who develops a rising creatinine with a pelvic mass or pressure effects on the pelvic veins 1 or more months after operation. The diagnosis is confirmed by intravenous urography, venography and ultrasonography: the use of the latter as a diagnostic measure is recommended. Treatment is by marsupialisation into the peritoneum or external drainage with breakdown of all loculi. Aspiration is unsatisfactory.

The management of urinary fistulae following cadaveric renal transplantation

Vesicoureteric, ureteric and calyceal fistulae in cadaver transplants may be successfully treated by early exploration and nephrostomy splintage with silastic tubing for a period of not less than 6 weeks.