Editing 2304: Preprint

{{comic
| number    = 2304
| date      = May 8, 2020
| title     = Preprint
| image     = preprint.png
| titletext = DOWNSIDES: Adobe people may periodically email your newsroom to ask you to call it an 'Adobe® PDF document,' but they'll reverse course once they learn how sarcastically you can pronounce the registered trademark symbol.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is about how media reports non-{{w|peer-review}}ed research papers. The newscaster depicted is attempting to report breaking news based on information in a study; however, the study in question has not been formally published. This leads to uncertainty on the part of either the newscaster, [[Blondie]], or her scriptwriters as they try to determine how to refer to this study, represented here by alternative introduction lines being scribbled out.

[[Randall]] suggests that, instead of explaining that the paper was in {{w|preprint}}, or unpublished or submitted to a preprint server and not peer-reviewed, the newscaster could simply say it was a {{w|PDF}}. PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format for documents developed by Adobe to be used independent of application software, hardware and operating systems.
Randall proceeds to lists several benefits of using "PDF": 
* The use of terms such as "preprint" makes statement about its publication status, which might be based on inaccurate information or even be in the process of changing as the news goes out; in contrast, proclaiming it to be a PDF document is an unambiguously factual statement.  Additionally, "preprint”, "peer review" and related terminology are not familiar to most people who are not academics.
* Referring to the PDF document directly also prevents individuals from making assumptions that the one responsible knows and has verified what they're doing - or, in contrast, that the information is automatically false based on the grounds that it hasn't yet been officially published.
* The comic finishes with a jab at PDF itself, proclaiming that no ordinary person would ''voluntarily'' choose a PDF file as their medium of communication.  Ordinary people use the default file format of whatever word processor or text editor they use, but PDF files are not very convenient to edit, so they're generally only used for final versions of documents that are ready to print or distribute, following a dedicated export or conversion process.
** This is similar to Randall's declaration in the comic [[1301: File Extensions]] that ".pdf" is the second-most-trustworthy file extension.  As it happens, he says that the ''most'' trustworthy file extension is ".tex", so perhaps the news anchor could specify that the PDF was "compiled from {{w|LaTeX}}" (if this is true) to imply additional legitimacy.

The title text makes fun of what is incorrectly believed to be the official name of PDF; it is now an open international standard (ISO 32000-1), and the only PDF files that are "Adobe Acrobat files" or "Adobe PDF" files are those created using Adobe Systems' software. Further, Adobe does not use the ® designation in conjunction with PDF. (See [https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/en/legal/documents/Adobe_Trademark_Guidelines_11012014.pdf Adobe Trademark Guidelines, 1 Nov. 2014]) Adobe trademark guidelines were also made fun of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/108/ here].

Since so many applications can create and even edit PDF files, implying a connection with Adobe every time someone talks about one is preposterous, and one could sarcastically pronounce the registered trademark symbol to show contempt for the fact that it is a registered trademark.

This comic was possibly produced in response to the preprint study [https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463v2 "COVID-19 Antibody Seroprevalence in Santa Clara County, California"], Bendavid et al, which was posted online in mid-April 2020 before peer review. The authors of the paper went on a media blitz immediately after posting it, appearing on major cable news networks and writing editorials in major publications, claiming that their results show that COVID-19 is not nearly as bad as thought and that most people are already immune to it. Other scientists have pointed out that, if the very high false-positive rate of the test used and the sample bias of their methodology (testing only people who self-report as sick) are properly considered in the analysis, the data collected is such poor quality as to be meaningless, with properly applied error bars on the number of actual cases in the general population extending below 0. Nonetheless, many less-scientifically-literate politicians, media figures, and protest groups continue to use the much-criticized study as proof that COVID-19 should not be considered an emergency, and that quarantine measures should be cancelled. As of May 11 2020, the study has still not passed peer review, nor undergone any revisions since the first posting.

==Transcript==
:[Blondie as a newscaster is sitting at a desk.  To the right is a screen with text, the bottom word is a thin line making the letters white. Just above her head is what she says as her opening line for her news story. But above this text, is more text which have been grayed out and scribbled over. This are three other alternative opening lines which she did not use, indicating revisions to her script.]
:Blondie [gray and scribbled out]: According to a new preprint…
:Blondie [gray and scribbled out]: …An unpublished study…
:Blondie [gray and scribbled out]: According to a new paper uploaded to a preprint server but which has not undergone peer review…
:Newscaster: According to a new PDF…
:Inset graphic: Breaking ''NEWS''

:[Beneath the panel is a long caption consisting of an underlined headline with three bulleted points beneath it:]
::<u>Benefits of just saying "a PDF":</u>
:* Avoids implications about publication status
:* Immediately raises questions about author(s)
:* Still implies "this document was probably prepared by a professional, because no normal human trying to communicate in 2020 would choose this ridiculous format."

==Trivia==
*This comic made Blondie the character that has most often presented a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], as this became her ninth appearance in this role.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Scientific research]]