Journal clubs are important mechanisms for teaching how to approach the
scientific literature critically and for disseminating findings. Papers from
high-impact journals often dominate journal club selections, a practice that
reinforces the unscientific emphasis of placing high value on publishing venue
rather than scientific content and critical analysis of the publications. We
suggest improving journal clubs by including preprints rather than focusing
completely on published papers. This change in practice might benefit the
scientific enterprise in numerous ways, including by providing direct criticisms
to preprint authors before publication, deemphasizing publishing venue, teaching
students the art of reviewing papers, and making journal clubs more current by
discussing unpublished data.
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