This August, ChemRxiv celebrates its fifth anniversary. Launched in 2017, ChemRxiv has helped thousands of authors post more than 14,000 unique preprints across all fields of chemistry. These preprints have been viewed and downloaded nearly 38 million times. Additionally, many of these preprints have been peer-reviewed and published in top journals such as the Journal of […]
This August, ChemRxiv celebrates its fifth anniversary. Launched in 2017, ChemRxiv has helped thousands of authors post more than 14,000 unique preprints across all fields of chemistry. These preprints have been viewed and downloaded nearly 38 million times. Additionally, many of these preprints have been peer-reviewed and published in top journals such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Science, Nature, Science, and more!
As part of our celebration, we published an editorial that reflects on the past five years and takes a look at what is next for ChemRxiv. We also interviewed the author of a recent preprint to learn more about their experience posting preprints and how ChemRxiv fits into their publishing goals.
This interview with Dr. Feihu Li of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology relates to the preprint “Arsenic(V) Immobilization in Fly Ash and Lead-Zinc Mine Tailing-based Geopolymer: Performance and Mechanism Insight,” posted on February 4, 2022 and later published in the journal Chemosphere. The other authors on this preprint are Alseny Bah, Jie Jin, and Andrea O. Ramos, all from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology.
Why did you decide to submit this recent preprint?
Compared to peer review and formal publication, which usually takes more than a few months, the preprint service allows for faster sharing of our lab’s research progress with national and international peers in about a week.
Did you have any prior experience with preprints?
Yes. I am used to submitting our manuscripts to the ChemRxiv preprint service prior to formal submission to a journal.
Can you give us a brief summary of the research shared in your preprint?
In this paper, we have developed a geopolymer by using fly ash and lead-zinc mine tailing as raw materials. The geopolymer not only can stabilize exogenous arsenic contaminants in the long term, but also has a strong compressive strength. Therefore, it can be used as a greener and low-carbon building material to substitute some conventional building materials with a high carbon footprint.
What feedback have you received about your preprint (or past preprints)?
No feedback has been received on this preprint yet. However, I note that a previously submitted ChemRxiv preprint was cited many times by international peers in formally published papers.
If you are attending the ACS Fall Meeting in Chicago, there will be a brief presentation from the ChemRxiv team from 1:00 to 1:30 PM CDT on Monday, August 22 in the ACS Theater in the exhibit hall of the McCormick Place Convention Center. We would be happy to answer your questions and learn about your experience with preprints.