In 1961, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began to circulate biological preprints in a forgotten experiment called the Information Exchange Groups (IEGs). This system eventually attracted over 3,600 participants and saw the production of over 2,500 different documents, but by 1967, it was effectively shut down following the refusal of journals to accept articles that had been circulated as preprints. This article charts the rise and fall of the IEGs and explores the parallels with the 1990s and the biomedical preprint movement of today.

中文翻译：

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生物学预印本的史前史：20 世纪 60 年代被遗忘的实验

1961 年，美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 开始在一项名为信息交换组 (IEG) 的被遗忘的实验中传播生物预印本。该系统最终吸引了 3,600 多名参与者，并生成了 2,500 多份不同的文档，但到 1967 年，由于期刊拒绝接受作为预印本分发的文章，该系统实际上被关闭。本文描绘了 IEG 的兴衰，并探讨了 20 世纪 90 年代和当今生物医学预印本运动的相似之处。