The Automated Screening Working Groups is a group of software engineers and biologists passionate about improving scientific manuscripts on a large scale. Our members have created tools that check for common problems in scientific manuscripts, including information needed to improve transparency and reproducibility. We have combined our tools into a single pipeline, called ScreenIT. We're currently using our tools to screen COVID preprints.

Back to ScreenIT's group page

Our lists

Evaluated articles 23610

Summary

The Automated Screening Working Groups is a group of software engineers and biologists passionate about improving scientific manuscripts on a large scale. Our goal is to process every manuscript in the biomedical sciences as it is being submitted for publication, and provide customized feedback to improve that manuscript. Our members have created tools that check for common problems in scientific manuscripts, including information needed to improve transparency and reproducibility. We have combined our tools into a single pipeline, called ScreenIT.

Evaluation model

Papers are screened by seven automated screening tools, which are described in the table below. While automated screening is not a replacement for peer review, tools can help to identify common problems. Examples include failing to state whether experiments were blinded or randomized, not reporting the sex of participants, or misusing bar graphs to display continuous data. Automated tools aren’t perfect – they make mistakes, they can’t tell whether a paper will be reproducible, and they can’t always determine whether a particular criterion is relevant for a given manuscript. Despite these limitations, tools may be useful in drawing readers’ attention to factors that are important for transparency, rigor and reproducibility. We hope that by providing fast, customized feedback, our tools may help preprint authors to improve reporting prior to publication.

Tools used to screen preprints

ToolScreens ForLink & RRID
SciScoreBlinding, randomization, sample size calculations, sex/gender, ethics & consent statements, resources, RRIDshttp://sciscore.com RRID:SCR_016251
ODDPubOpen data, open codehttps://github.com/quest-bih/oddpub RRID:SCR_018385
Limitation-RecognizerAuthor-acknowledged limitationshttps://github.com/kilicogluh/limitation-recognizer RRID:SCR_018748
BarzookaBar graphs of continuous datahttps://quest-barzooka.bihealth.org RRID:SCR_018508
JetFighterRainbow color mapshttps://jetfighter.ecrlife.org RRID:SCR_018498
Trial Registration Number ScreenerConfirms accuracy of clinical trial registration numbers registered in ClinicalTrials.govhttps://github.com/bgcarlisle/TRNscreener RRID:SCR_019211
sciteRetracted citations or citations of papers with erratumshttps://www.scite.ai RRID:SCR_018568
rtransparentProtocol registration, conflict of interest disclosures, funding disclosureshttps://github.com/serghiou/rtransparent RRID_SCR019276
Seek and Blastn8*Correct identification of nucleotide sequencehttp://scigendetection.imag.fr/TPD52/ RRID:SCR_016625

*Some papers may be screened with Seek and Blastn, a semi-automated tool that requires human confirmation of results. Reports for Seek and Blastn are posted separately on PubPeer.

Abbreviations: RRID, research resource identifier

PReF

Sciety uses the PReF (preprint review features) descriptors to describe key elements of each Group's evaluation activities, helping readers to interpret and compare their evaluations. Learn more.

Review requested by
Non-authors
Reviewer selected by
Not applicable
Public interaction
No
Inclusion of author response
Yes
Decision
None
Review coverage
Specific aspects
Reviewer identity known to
Not applicable
Competing interests
Not included

Learn more about our tools

SciScore

ODDPub

Limitations Recognizer

JetFighter

Seek and Blastn

The ScreenIT pipeline

rtransparent

People

https://scicrunch.org/ASWG/about/People

Content license

Public user content licensed CC-BY-NC 4.0 unless otherwise specified.