The living reviews will summarise literature around one topic and are a response to the speed and volume of COVID-19 immunology research published during the pandemic.
On behalf of the Oxford-Cardiff COVID-19 Literature Consortium, Dr Ewoud Compeer, University of Oxford points out the idea behind this new publishing format: "The field of COVID-19 immunology was seeing new developments and new hypotheses appearing at an extreme pace online in the form of pre-prints. This speed of publishing made literature reviews outdated even before a journal published them. Our 'living reviews' will stay "live" for a designated period, being updated as change happens."
The journal publishes peer reviewed scientific articles, and the annotation enables rapid communication of updated information, but the version of record does not change so provides a history of the scientific developments.