Reader FAQ ~ Author FAQ ~ Institution FAQ

COBRA Author FAQ

Who can post on COBRA?
Many institutions have technical paper series within COBRA, but any academic, researcher, medical professional, or scholar working within the field of biostatistics can post their material.
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Who reviews submissions to COBRA?
Although this is not a peer-reviewed journal, COBRA content IS reviewed before it is posted to the site. For each institution participating in COBRA there is a series administrator who serves as the gatekeeper. Submissions that are not attached to a participating institution are directly reviewed by the bepress COBRA administrator.
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What does COBRA mean for authors?
It means that you can quickly and easily publish your papers, articles and research on an open access website for discovery by scientists and researchers in the academic and medical communities.
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What kinds of things can I post on COBRA besides technical reports?
COBRA also accepts videos, postprints, student series, dissertations and book chapters.
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Why should I submit my paper to COBRA?
Authors post papers in COBRA to promote their scholarship. Posting will increase the exposure of your work, benefiting you, your co-authors, and your institution. We are experts in disseminating scholarly work, which means that your content will get more readers than just about anywhere else you might post it.
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My department already posts technical reports on our website. Why should I also post on COBRA?
Your research will reach significantly more people within the academic and medical communities when posted on COBRA. COBRA outperforms any school’s website in terms of traffic, readership, and search and browse functionality. In addition to the prominent standing that COBRA holds within the general search engines, our content is featured on medbioworld.com (the largest medical and bioscience resource directory on the Internet) and the Current Web Contents™ portion of the ISI Web of Knowledge (Thomson’s research powerhouse). Besides our own search engine (which accesses the full text of every article), COBRA content is fulltext indexed by Google, which means that COBRA articles show up in key word search results.
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Besides promoting their scholarship, why else do authors post in COBRA?
Preserving and archiving your reports in COBRA makes it easier for scholars and researchers around the world to discover your work, including those who may not have access to subscription journals. Posting also allows you to stake an early intellectual claim to an area of research.
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How many scholars in biostatistics read this content?
In the first quarter of 2006, COBRA articles received over 50,000 full-text downloads (a 100% jump from 1st quarter downloads in 2005).
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Does COBRA own the papers that it posts?
Since these technical reports are works in progress, we hold no ownership of the content. Authors are free to publish/post their content elsewhere.
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How is my work discovered?
We offer several unique paths of discovery to content including a powerful advanced search engine, and browsing by subject, author, or "most popular reports." E-mail notification by subject, author, institution or key word also allows readers to access your content through customized searches. Please see the Reader FAQ for more about these paths of discovery.
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How do I know how often my paper is being read?
COBRA sends monthly activity reports to you totaling the number of full text downloads your paper has received. A "fulltext download" is accomplished when a reader selects the "download the paper" option and allows your paper’s PDF to fully launch in their browser.
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Are other people in the biostatistics community posting on COBRA?
Yes; 825 authors have posted so far on COBRA, and that number is growing. Major departments and institutions are contributing their prepublication materials to the collection, including Harvard, Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins, Penn, Berkeley, The University of Washington, The University of Michigan, and Columbia.
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Should I worry about someone using my ideas if I post my work on COBRA?
Quite the opposite. We have actually found that posting a working paper allows one to stake an early intellectual claim to an idea, as it creates a very visible public record of a researcher's work in progress.
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Is it difficult to post?
No. Posting takes about three minutes. Our system automatically converts files to PDF to save you the trouble of manually converting your work.
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My school has an account with COBRA. How do I post?
Most schools with institutional accounts have a designated series administrator, who is responsible for posting papers. If you do not have a series administrator, or you do not know who your administrator is, please go to your school’s COBRA homepage and click "submit a paper." You can also send an email to .
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My school DOES NOT have an institutional account. How do I post?
Go to the COBRA homepage and click "Add your report." After you sign up for a free account, the posting process includes 4 simple steps:
  1. Read and accept the Article Submission Agreement
  2. Provide information about yourself
  3. Provide information about any co-authors
  4. Upload your article and related items
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Can I remove my paper from COBRA?
Yes. Simply send your request to and we will remove the paper for you.
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I have a publication offer. Should I take my paper out of COBRA?
Sharing a "working" version of a paper with other scholars rarely interferes with the publication of your paper. Many reports on COBRA have been published in journals, but continue to be available in an earlier form on our site. With that said, there are a few journals that ask authors to remove all previous versions of their papers from Web sites. If you receive such a request, just let know the title of the paper and we will remove it for you.
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For more information, please contact:

Kathleen Cowan
Product Marketing Manager
The Berkeley Electronic Press
2809 Telegraph Ave.
Suite 202
Berkeley, CA 94705
510-665-1200 x118