Update: It’s online.
Well, maybe the title is hyperbolic. But it’s been frustrating for years that PNAS seems to have some of the most backward post-publication delay policies/patterns in the business. So, for example there’s a new paper in PNAS which is being covered in the media extensively with a DOI link released, but the paper still isn’t on the website. This allows David Reich free rein to do a little amusing slap-slap without any paper to check him:
….The PNAS paper questioning Neanderthal admixture addresses issues swirling around two years ago but not Reich and Slatkin’s latest work. “It’s been an issue for several years. They were right to work on this,” says Reich. But now “it’s kind of an obsolete paper,” he says.
And of course Reich’s group put their preprint up on arXiv yesterday (though the linked piece above says that it’s already been accepted into PLoS Genetics), so we can slice & dice it while we’re waiting on PNAS.
My primary reason for putting a whole post on this issue, which Ed Yong has mentioned many times, is that Twitter kept buzzing (at least my feed) about when the paper was going live earlier today. On the one hand this generates pent up demand, but it also creates irritation and resentment. I understand that people present at conferences and give talks, and then you wait for the paper. But it’s really testing patience to release media coverage before you put the paper up. And if the past teaches us anything it could be days before they push it live.
I have no idea if this is PNAS‘ policy. Nature and Science somehow manage without this ‘feature.’ And I doubt anything will change. But it should change.
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