We are excited to present an interview with Dr. Federico Giorgi, winner of the 2023 Most Popular Preprints Award. The Most Popular Preprints Award was launched by Preprints.org to engage the scientific community and celebrate open and transparent science. Dr. Giorgi and co-author’s preprint stood out among the numerous preprints within the Biology and Life Sciences category, capturing the attention of readers from across the globe that participated in the voting to select the winners.
Here, we summarize some of the key points of the discussion and provide a link to watch the recording. Learn more about his impactful research and views and experiences on the use of preprints.
About Federico Giorgi, winner of the 2023 Biology and Life Sciences Award
Dr. Federico Giorgi is a professor in bioinformatics in the department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna. His interest in bioinformatics and programing started during his PhD in Bioinformatics of Molecular Plant Physiology, University of Potsdam (Germany).
His preprint, Cross-species Transcriptomics Analysis Highlights Conserved Molecular Responses to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) received 2nd place in the “Biology and Life Sciences” category.
Here we go into a bit more detail about Dr. Giorgi’s work and thoughts.
Key findings and contributions
The award-winning preprint has some fascinating key findings. It looked at the detrimental effects of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), which are environmental pollutants, on living organisms. PFAS have been used as fireproof materials and are available around us, everywhere. They are also known to persist and accumulate within the environment, so exposure to these pollutants is ubiquitous.
In this study, Dr. Giorgi and his team looked at the molecular responses to PFAS exposure across 7 distinct animal species. The comparative transcriptional analysis revealed that exposure to PFAS is conserved across species and identified several genes exhibiting transcriptional response to PFAS. More importantly, PFAS were shown to block the reproductive cycle by mimicking naturally occurring hormones. Some of these hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen, can lead to sterility. To help us understand the premise, he explains it like this,
“I don’t know if the audience knows. But PFAS are environmental pollutants. They’re used as fireproof materials in anything from, you know, firefighter vests to pants to make them fireproof, and essentially they do not degrade very well because they are a new compound to nature and they persist in the environment, so we wanted to know if there are effects that have been discovered before the detrimental effects to living organisms were conserved across vertebrates.”
Impact of the preprint and future studies
When asked about how this preprint could influence public policy or raise awareness regarding the detrimental effects PFAS have on vertebrates. Dr. Giorgi took some time to discuss the impact and reach his award-winning preprint had.
After the preprint was posted, Dr. Giorgi was contacted by the local authorities and informed that they wanted to include his findings within their own analysis. In Italy, in the Veneto region they are conducting studies and surveys on the amount and effects PFAS have on the environment. The preprint published by Dr. Giorgio and his co-authors provided the scientific foundation as to why to divert more public efforts and funding towards eradicating these pollutants.
By sharing the work as a preprint, the science was made publicly available immediately. It was available months in advance of the peer reviewed article. As such, local authorities could access the research and make decisions earlier. As he notes,
“It’s maybe unpolished science but it is still real data and real findings.”
Why did Dr. Giorgi choose a preprint?
There are five main reasons that motivated him and his team to share their research as a preprint. In particular, they saw value in doing this before submitting the work to a peer reviewed journal. Their views were:
- They wanted their findings to be shares as soon as possible with everyone;
- They wanted their research to be more discoverable;
- By posting your discovery on a preprint server earlier you can claim credit for your discovery;
- You can show the community how your research develops, and the paper is refined over time;
- It motivated his younger team members to see their research published online.
He notes that there is still some confusion and reluctance when it comes to fully embracing preprints.
“[T]hey (some other academics) are afraid that preprints will, you know, steal their thunder and their recognition, and it’s actually exactly the opposite[.]”
Dr. Giorgi’s thoughts regarding preprints
When asked what advice he would give to researchers considering to post their work as a preprint, he pointed out that researchers should submit their work. They shouldn’t hesitate or be afraid of being scooped. Preprints increase the speed of research without decreasing quality. So, authors should submit complete, quality studies. They can also still be works in progress, but the included work should still be polished.
The full interview is available online.
Other outstanding preprints
To explore the outstanding preprints announced as the 2023 Most Popular Preprints, visit our website at [https://www.preprints.org/activity/award/announcement].
Preprints.org is a multidiscipline platform providing preprint service. It is dedicated to making early versions of research outputs permanently available and citable. We post original research articles and comprehensive reviews. Papers can be updated by authors as long as the updated content has not been published online. Content on Preprints.org is not peer-reviewed and can receive feedback from readers.
