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Hi Scholar,

Almost exactly nine years ago — on 11 January 2017 — the Wellcome Trust announced that it would accept preprints in grant applications and end-of-grant reports. That small shift had a significant impact on the way knowledge-in-the-making is circulated. There are, of course, the obvious benefits of rapid dissemination and early feedback. But for us, what we appreciate most about preprints is the way they enable open conversation — offering opportunities for debate and discussion beyond the closed chambers of peer review.

In this sense, preprints remind us of how letters were once used by early scholars to exchange, debate, and develop ideas. Preprints — like letters — share a certain simplicity in the conditions through which knowledge and research come to be. It is a theme that, perhaps, undergirds much of today’s Letter.