Preprint on Alzheimer’s drug deaths ignites dispute among authors | Science | AAAS

"Infighting among a group of prominent Alzheimer’s disease researchers has led to the withdrawal of a preprint they co-authored, which suggested a new Alzheimer’s drug markedly increases the risk of death. One scientist involved in the work charges the senior author failed to seek the go-ahead from his co-authors before posting an edited version of the article to a preprint server...

“Old men are used to publishing in journals,” says co-author Robert Howard, a professor of old age psychiatry at University College London who has no previous experience with posting preprints. Howard is one of five authors who asked the paper’s senior author, neurologist Alberto Espay of the University of Cincinnati (UC), to remove their names from the preprint because of doubts about the evidence it presents. He says he had previously viewed posting a preprint as akin to circulating a journal submission among editors and peer reviewers. There, it might be overhauled or even abandoned because of feedback received. “We kind of assumed that we could apply the same structure and principles and behavior to the preprint,” he says...."