CEND It! with Stef Bertozzi and Rapid Reviews/Infectious Diseases

In our second installment of our monthly lunch series "CEND It!", we were delighted to have Dr. Stefano Bertozzi, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr. Bertozzi spoke about Rapid Reviews/Infectious Diseases (RR/ID), an open-access overlay journal that accelerates peer review of important infectious disease-related research preprints. We learned about how RR/ID reviews infectious disease preprints on a weekly basis, engaging three UC Berkeley-based student editorial teams as well as internationally based teams in Mexico, India, Vietnam, Peru, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and more. With support from the Gates Foundation, they plan to expand to eight more universities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries over the next couple of years. Dr. Bertozzi spoke about the vibrant community of student editors and meaningful experiences that students gain, as their work is grounded in the belief that scientific publishing should be transparent and accessible to those who seek knowledge while contributing to the advancement of science. He emphasized the utility of open access peer-reviewing and encourages all those involved in infectious disease research, from undergraduate students to faculty, to take advantage of preprinting their work. Learn more about RR/ID and their impacts on infectious disease scientific literature here.