Tuesday, August 12, 2025
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UAE-based Initiative Drives Regional Open Science Movement with Support from UNESCO and UAE Ministries

  • The global Open Science movement is an essential cornerstone of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); ensuring the accessibility and reproducibility of scientific research, and the inclusivity of global education models, the advancement of Open Science is a matter of paramount importance for every nation.
  • The Arab states have the resources and capabilities to lead this vitally important global shift towards more accessible, sustainable, and inclusive research and education models.
  • The Knowledge E Foundation is partnering with UNESCO, Khalifa University, the UAE Ministry of Education, and the UAE Ministry of Youth and Culture to promote the advancement and adoption of Open Science policies and practices within research communities and research institutions across the Arab region.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a strong advocate of Open Science practices as part of its wider commitment to sustainability and the SDGs, and continuously promotes the accessibility and dissemination of scientific knowledge.  With COP28 approaching, the UAE has a prominent role in nurturing global cooperation for a greener, more sustainable future, showcasing its ability to drive and build on the region’s sustainable practices, with Open Science playing an important role.

One UAE-based non-profit initiative furthering this movement is the Forum for Open Research in MENA (F.O.R.M.), which aims to support the development and implementation of Open Science policies and practises in research communities and research institutions across the Arab region. F.O.R.M. is focused on empowering libraries, higher education institutions, research councils, and policy makers through activities, projects, and resources that serve the needs of local research communities. As part of this, each year F.O.R.M. organises the Annual Forum where librarians, researchers, government policy makers, universities, and international experts can come together to discuss and debate key themes and issues relating to the advancement of Open Science across the Arab world.

This year’s Annual Forum will be held in Abu Dhabi from October 23rd to 25th in partnership with UNESCO, Khalifa University, the UAE Ministry of Education, and the UAE Ministry of Youth and Culture. With over 70 presenters from across the world discussing key aspects of the region’s Open Science developments, in 22 high-impact sessions, the Annual Forum will also feature keynote addresses by prominent figures. His Excellency Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, the UAE Minister of Education, will deliver the inaugural keynote, setting the stage for numerous engaging talks to follow, including keynotes from Dr. Salvatore Aricò, the CEO of the International Science Council, and Heather Joseph, the Executive Director of SPARC. 

Moreover, this year, as part of the Annual Forum, F.O.R.M. and the Knowledge E Foundation are collaborating with UNESCO to bring together key policymakers from all the Arab States to explore the possibility of establishing a new non-governmental Arab Association for Open Sciences in higher education. By convening at this distinguished event to exchange insights and expertise, industry leaders, government officials, and specialists act as global agents of change, contributing to a more Open Arab region and a more knowledgeable world.

‘F.O.R.M. aims to chart a clear and sustainable path forward for the open science movement, guiding stakeholders toward a future where openness and accessibility are foundational principles, rather than mere concepts.’
Kamran R. Kardan – Founder of the Knowledge E Foundation 

A catalyst for positive action, we work with key stakeholders to develop and implement a pragmatic programme of activities and resources, designed to facilitate the exchange of actionable insights and the development of practical policies. As our membership grows and our network expands, we hope to be able to make a tangible, sustainable contribution to the Arab region’s research communities.   
Emily Choynowski – Director of Operations and Chief Organiser for F.O.R.M.

European Commission Awards F1000 with a new Contract to Continue to Provide the Technology, Editorial and Communication Services for Open Research Europe

F1000 is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a second contract for the on-going technology and publishing services for Open Research Europe (ORE), the European Commission’s Open Research publishing venue for Horizon funded research and other eligible EC research programs all subject areas.

F1000, which is part of Taylor & Francis group, was awarded a 4-year contract in 2020, tasked with establishing and managing an open access publishing platform for the European Commission, helping them to fulfil their ambition of championing a new publishing model that centres on greater quality, integrity, collaboration, and transparency compared with traditional models. The new contract will see F1000 continue to provide the technology, editorial and communication services for ORE and onboard all of the European Commission framework programmes, which will be eligible to publish on ORE from now on. The publishing platform will also start to take steps towards supporting multilingual publication and enhance the interoperability of the platform with OpenAIRE.

Of the new contract win Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director, F1000 said: “The incredible success that ORE has achieved in just over two years is testament to the European Commission’s commitment to providing a publishing option to their grantees that actively encourages and supports a shift to more open research practices, for the benefit of research progress and tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, as well as for the research community itself.

“Critical to supporting and enabling a continued shift will be the ongoing commitment of the European Commission and its stakeholders in making changes to the research assessment worldwide, ensuring that research is measured on its intrinsic value rather than publication venue, and that a much broader range of outputs and activities are recognised and rewarded as valuable contributions to research. We are absolutely thrilled to have been selected to continue to partner with them on this remarkable journey and look forward to seeing what more we can achieve together to meet the challenges of the global research community for the next few years”.

With the help of expert partners LIBER, Eurodoc, the Global Young Academy and OpenAIRE ORE was officially launched in March 2021. In the past two years, over 1,800 authors from 340 different institutions and 45 different countries have published their research with Open Research Europe, with over 450 articles covering everything from using artificial intelligence to predict battery degradation to tool use of chimpanzees.

Toma Susi, Scientific Advisory Board member, ORE, continued: “I am glad to hear we will keep working together with F1000 for two more years, both in my role on the Board but also as an author and reviewer on ORE. Their modern technology and active commitment to its success have been vital for making ORE an attractive option for EC-funded researchers who understand that what we discover and how openly we share our work ultimately matters more for the advancement of science and scholarship than any perceived prestige of the outlet. With the gratifying momentum behind research assessment reform and the maturing plans to move to an open platform serving an even larger share of publicly funded research, the future of ORE is bright.”

Authors have fully embraced the ability to publish research outputs at every stage of the research journey through the different article types supported by the platform. While 50% of research published has been as a traditional Research Article, the other 50% is made up of non-traditional article types such as Method Articles, Essays, and Software Tool Articles helping to truly capture the breadth of outputs from across the research lifecycle and helping to reduce research waste.

ORE also aims to support a shift away from journal-based metrics, such as the Impact Factor, through the use of a range of article-level metrics such as views, citations, and downloads as a measure of research impact, to place greater value on the research itself. ORE is fully aligned with, and fully committed to, the outcomes of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). In addition, many articles have gained coverage in news outlets such as Forbes and the Columbia Journalism Review, and in policy documents of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Renewable Energy Agency.

ORE has also achieved indexation in 10 major databases – a fantastic feat within just two years. Most recently it has been accepted for indexation in PubMed Central, building on 2022’s successes with indexing in Scopus, ERIH PLUS, and Inspec, as well as achieving the DOAJ seal within its first year of publishing.

ReviewerCredits and Prophy join forces: A big step forward for community-driven peer-review

Prophy and Reviewer Credits have announced that they are entering into a partnership that will alleviate the problem of finding peer reviewers. The two will enable a new solution based on AI-powered optimization from a pool of vetted and verified peer reviewers. This new partnership will solve the ‘bounce back’ issue inherent to finding reviewers, increase scientific transparency, and reward those researchers who carry out this vital task.

“Peer review and research integrity are at the top of the agenda for all players in the research and publishing ecosystem”, noted Dr. Sven Fund, Managing Director of ReviewerCredits.

“The combination of ReviewerCredits’ community of verified peer reviewers and Prophy’s powerful AI-based fingerprinting technique strengthen the value we can bring to researchers, ensuring the science remains open, verifiable and trustworthy”, remarked Physics Professor Oleg Ruchayskiy, co-founder of Prophy.

The two also noted that “ReviewerCredits and Prophy are utilizing cutting-edge technology to make peer review a frictionless, rewarding experience for researchers.”

Publishers can now gain access to a comprehensive network of vetted, high-caliber reviewers from a continually expanding pool of experts. Those accustomed to the flexibility of Prophy’s reviewer-finding algorithm and selection tools will continue to enjoy it, ensuring that invited reviewers have explicitly opted in for the task. This highlights their peer-review efforts and also guarantees proper recognition and rewards. The collaboration prioritizes in-depth evaluation of significant publications, balances the workload of peer review across the community, and recognizes the crucial contributions of peer reviewers. One key feature of this system is fact that researchers can choose their reviewing assignments. The expertise of this ReviewerCredits-Prophy combined network encompasses the entirety of the peer review process, including journal articles, books, and conference presentations.

Over 60 speakers announced for IOP Publishing’s virtual event series Environmental Research 2023  

IOP Publishing (IOPP) has confirmed the full list of speakers for Environmental Research 2023.  The series of free-to-attend virtual events – which run from 16 October to 23 November – will bring international experts together to unite efforts to tackle environmental threats.  

Aligned with IOPP’s Environmental Research portfolio of open access journals, presentations from over 60 world-leading experts will be live-streamed, focussing on strategic issues such as sustainable energy, environmental justice, the environmental impacts of building materials, ambient air pollution and detection and attribution of climate change.  

Environmental Research 2023 will also offer networking opportunities for environmental and social scientists, engineers, economists and policy influencers at all career stages.  There will be publishing talks from IOPP experts, along with a social-media poster competition to showcase the latest research in emerging areas of interest.  

The line-up of speakers from across the globe includes:  

·       Navin Ramankutty, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Data Science for Sustainable Global Food Systems at the University of British Columbia 

·       Shonali Pachauri, Leader of the Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group in the Energy, Climate, and Environment Program at IIASA, Austria 

·       Ronita Bardhan, Associate Professor of Sustainable Built Environment and leads the Sustainable Design Group at the University of Cambridge 

·       Jedediah Brodie, Associate Professor and Craighead Chair of Conservation at the University of Montana 

·       Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow in the School of Science, UNSW Canberra 

·       Hongbo Duan, a professor at School of Economics & Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (P. R. China) 

Dr Tim Smith, Head of Portfolio Development at IOP Publishing said: “We’re honoured to have a line-up of such prestigious speakers and looking forward to a month of thought-provoking discussion and key insights from the latest research. Changing the world’s trajectory will take significant effort and requires cross-disciplinary collaboration amongst scientists. That’s why it’s so important to bring the scientific community together in this way to share knowledge and explore solutions.” 

For full programme details and how to register please visit the conference website at http://ioppublishing.eventsair.com/environmental-research-2023   

Clarivate Accurately Forecasts Four New 2023 Nobel Prize Laureates 

75 Citation Laureates named by the Institute for Scientific Information have received a Nobel Prize since 2002 

Clarivate Plc, a global leader in connecting people and organizations to intelligence they can trust to transform their world, today celebrates the four new Nobel Laureates who were accurately identified as potential Nobel Prize recipients. Ferenc Krausz, Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Braus and Claudia Goldin were named to the Citation Laureates™ list from Clarivate™ several years before being recognized by the Nobel Assembly.  

Every year, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™ at Clarivate interprets the high-quality citation data in the Web of Science™ to identify researchers of Nobel class who may be future Nobel Prize recipients.  

Four of this year’s Nobel Laureates in three categories (Physics, Chemistry and Economics) were identified as being of Nobel class as far back as 2012. This demonstrates that extremely high levels of citations in trusted journals can signal what the global scientific community regards as groundbreaking and of the utmost importance. Since 2002, a remarkable 75 Citation Laureates have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize.  

To explain the accuracy of the ISI in identifying future Nobel Laureates, David Pendlebury, Head of Research Analysis, ISI, Clarivate, said: “We rise to the unique challenge of forecasting Nobel Prize laureates by combining data-driven quantitative analysis with the human expertise of our analysts at ISI. This approach allows us to identify potential Nobel awardees years in advance, as exemplified by the four Citation Laureates honored this year. Their groundbreaking contributions have transformed our world, and it is an honor to see them recognized with a Nobel Prize.” 

The four Citation Laureates named as Nobel Laureates in 2023 are: 

  • The 2023 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”.
    • ISI identified this scientific breakthrough in 2015 as deserving of a Nobel Prize, linked to Ferenc Krausz, Anne L’Huillier and Paul Corkum for their contributions to the development of attosecond physics. While Krausz and Corkum were named Citation Laureates in 2015, Anne L’Huillier declined to be included on the list.   
  • The 2023 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexey Ekimov “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots”.
    • ISI named two of the researchers behind this scientific breakthrough several years ago: Louis E. Brus was named a Citation Laureate in 2012 for the discovery of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots), and Moungi G. Bawendi in 2020 for synthesis of nanocrystals with precise attributes for a wide range of applications in physical, biological and medical systems.    
  • The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 was awarded to Claudia Goldin “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”.
    • ISI identified Claudia Goldin as a Citation Laureate in 2020, recognizing her Nobel-worthy contributions to labor economics, especially her analysis of women and the gender pay gap. 

To learn more about the methodology of the Citation Laureates list, explore our Hall of Citation Laureates and discover our interviews with these exceptional researchers, please visit our website.  

ALPSP Launches Special Interest Groups for the Scholarly Publishing Community

International Trade Association, ALPSP, is pleased to announce the launch of a range of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) for its members and the wider scholarly publishing industry. The new initiative aims to encourage engagement and knowledge sharing amongst like-minded scholarly communities.

Each Special Interest Group will be led by a number of leaders and will take place virtually at regular intervals throughout the year. The groups will tackle relevant issues in scholarly publishing, suggest solutions and create a space for networking where experiences and case studies can be shared.

The following SIGs have just been launched and are now open to join:

  • Open Peer Review
  • Library Publishing
  • Open Access Books (for ALPSP members only)
  • Marketing Connected (general)
  • Marketing Maestros (senior level)
  • The SDGs and Publishing

Wayne Sime, Chief Executive of ALPSP, commented:
“ALPSP is delighted to announce this new initiative. We’ve heard from countless members that since COVID and beyond, the chances for networking, meeting others in similar jobs but divergent organizations are limited. There is a real need now for communities to come together and work on best outcomes, across the spectrum of scholarly publishing.”

Additional groups are also being set up and will be announced shortly. To find out more about each group, how to join, or propose a new SIG, please visit the ALPSP website. 

Membership of ALPSP is for the whole organization so all employees can take advantage of the benefits available. These include access to the latest news, research and advice, member rates for the conference and training, free member webinars, networking, the jobs board, mentorship scheme, plus the opportunity to be involved in ALPSP committees and other initiatives. The full events and training programme for 2023 can be viewed online.

MIT Press to flip two paywalled journals to Open Access with National Science Foundation Research Grant

The MIT Press will use the funds to flip two paywalled journals to open access and compare the feasibility of diamond open access models for STEM and humanities and social sciences (HSS) journals

The MIT Press is delighted to announce that it has received a two-year, $275,000 Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) from the National Science Foundation to expand the shift+OPEN initiative and shift at least two more journals to diamond open access. The Press will also use the grant to assess and compare the viability of open access models for advancing and sustaining the outputs of scientific and scholarly STEM and HSS research. 

“We’re grateful to the National Science Foundation for their support of our growing shift+OPEN program,” says Nick Lindsay, Director for Journals and Open Access for the MIT Press. “With their generous grant we will be able to both open up more scholarship and, we hope, attract more funders to allow us to further scale up the initiative.”

shift+OPEN launched in February 2023 to catalyze necessary change in journals publishing and provide access to vital scholarship. It promulgates an open access agenda that ensures that both authors and readers are financially unencumbered—authors can publish based on the merit and intellectual contribution of their articles and readers, ranging from peer researchers to the public, benefit from barrier-free access to these works.

Our initial funding from Arcadia covered the expenses of transitioning a journal to open access for a three-year term and expert assistance in developing a sustainable funding model to ensure the journal remains open access. We plan to announce our new journal partner in late October 2023.

Our recent open access successes demonstrate the potential of this work to accelerate scholarship. In 2019 the editorial board of the Journal of Informetrics resigned to start Quantitative Science Studies (QSS) at the MIT Press. QSS articles have since been downloaded over 825K times, and the journal earned an inaugural impact factor of 6.4 in 2023.

More recently, in April 2023, the editorial teams of Neuroimage and Neuroimage: Reports made international news when they resigned en masse in protest of high APC charges to start a new open science journal, Imaging Neuroscience, with the MIT Press. Embraced by the academic community, the journal signed up more than 2,500 peer reviewers and has already received several hundred submissions.

This new funding from the National Science Foundation research award will expand the shift+OPEN initiative flipping two additional high-impact subscription-based journals to diamond OA and underwriting publishing costs for three years each.

Additionally, while there is growing consensus that diamond open access is essential for the future of scholarly publishing, there is no viable, assured funding model. This NSF award makes it possible for us to test the hypothesis that a robust diamond publishing program will accelerate STEM and HSS research and incentivize the creation and advancement of knowledge.

We will open a new round of applications in January 2024. For more information on shift+OPEN, please see mitpress.mit.edu/shiftOPEN.

Future Science Group launches new open access journal: Future Medicine AI

Future Science Group (FSG) has launched Future Medicine AI, a new open access, peer-reviewed journal committed to advancing the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine.

“We have reached a point where the pace of digital innovation is seemingly overwhelming. Digitization has begun to sculpt almost every area of society, transforming everything from judicial organizations to healthcare systems. As AI reshapes medicine, Future Medicine AI will be positioned uniquely as a central hub for the communication and dissemination of the latest practice-changing research and high-quality industry insights, building a forward-thinking community of allied researchers, biomedical innovators and allied health practitioners, in a responsible and ethical way,” commented Emma Hall, Commissioning Editor.

It is essential to build digital healthcare technologies upon a foundation encompassing safety and responsibility, and as such, Future Medicine AI aims to cover these challenges and ethical issues to provide a critically reliable source of information for health regulators and policymakers.

Key topics covered by Future Medicine AI include:

  • Virtual reality
  • Precision medicine
  • Ethics and regulation
  • Medical imaging and biomedical diagnostics
  • Multi-omics research
  • Drug discovery and development
  • Next-generation clinical trials
  • Health management/optimization
  • Real world evidence

Future Medicine AI will be guided by a global panel of experts who bring a wealth of experience and expertise in medical AI and digital transformation. Editorial Board member Danny Ruta, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (London, UK) stated: “Medicine is experiencing a ‘Cambrian explosion’ in its evolution, the likes of which we have never seen in human history, driven by AI, along with advances in robotics, multi-omics and the application of systems science.”

“The pace of change is accelerating at an exponential rate so that new medical innovations are appearing every month. Our traditional evidence-based paradigm is struggling to keep up. The launch of Future Medicine AI is therefore welcome and very timely. It will provide an invaluable contribution to the publication of new methodologies and approaches to the validation of AI in healthcare, and to building a real-world evidence base that will accelerate the deployment of cost-effective AI solutions in routine clinical practice.”

Future Medicine AI considers contributions of a wide range of articles, including original research, reviews and opinion pieces, and is waiving fees during this launch phase. Unsolicited articles are also welcomed.

To submit an article, or for further information, contact the Commissioning Editor Emma Hall: e.hall@future-science-group.com.

Yale University Selects Clarivate to Provide Their Next Library Services and Discovery Platforms

Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a global leader in connecting people and organizations to intelligence they can trust to transform their world, today announces that Yale University has selected Clarivate ™ to provide its library services and discovery platforms.  Ex Libris Alma and Ex Libris Primo VE, both part of Clarivate, will provide Yale with a solution that integrates AI (artificial intelligence) and Linked Data to simplify the process for students, researchers and faculty.

Yale will implement Ex Libris Alma and Ex Libris Primo VE to unify Yale’s main and law libraries’ workflows and data, including electronic and digital materials, onto a single platform. Combining the benefits of using AI with trusted content sources will enable users to find new insights, fast and at scale. The cloud-based platform will help Yale elevate the user experience and enhance services within the library ecosystem.

Barbara Rockenbach, the Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian, said: “Ex Libris Alma and Ex Libris Primo will help us modernize our library systems and enhance our ability to manage and deliver resources more efficiently. Ex Libris Alma will streamline workflows, improve the user experience, and facilitate better collaboration among library staff, ultimately benefiting all of the Yale community.”

Yariv Kursh, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Ex Libris and Innovative, part of Clarivate said, “At Clarivate, we are committed to helping academic institutions such as Yale University think forward, to navigate roadblocks and transform their libraries with enhanced user-focused operations for both librarians and students. Our library and discovery services platforms are easy to implement and they work together to provide a cohesive and streamlined user experience that will benefit Yale University’s library ecosystem.”

Wolters Kluwer appoints Rafael Sidi as Health Research segment leader

Wolters Kluwer Health has appointed Rafael Sidi as Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Health Research segment. Sidi succeeds Vikram Savkar who is now the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions. Sidi reports to Stacey Caywood, CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health.

Sidi brings more than 20 years of experience in the research information services industry with a strong track record of delivering growth through digital transformation and product innovation. Throughout his career, Sidi’s success has been anchored by a consistent focus on understanding customer workflows and building strong team engagement. Sidi brings solid experience in driving growth through business transformation of large organizations.

In previous roles, he oversaw content aggregation, researcher workflow and licensing businesses, launching multiple new industry-recognized workflow solutions as well as data-driven and task-based products. He has previously led product development and publishing groups and has played instrumental roles in M&A. Sidi’s visionary approach helped bring many productivity tools to the research community, including text and data mining solutions. Sidi’s extensive background includes leadership roles at Clarivate, ProQuest, and Elsevier. As Global Head of Strategy for Academia & Government at Clarivate, he led the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and Web of Science Editorial teams.

“Medical research and discovery continue to grow at breakneck speed and supporting technology is changing the ways clinical researchers, academics and students extract insights from the growing body of evidence and data. I am excited to work with Rafael to accelerate the innovation and customer success Wolters Kluwer delivers at such a key moment in the industry. I am confident his deep industry experience, proven success delivering growth, and his passion for innovating and building highly collaborative teams will advance the Health Research business to its next level of success,” said Stacey Caywood, Chief Executive Officer, Wolters Kluwer Health.

As part of the Health Learning Research & Practice (HLRP) business, the Health Research segment provides health solutions that help clinical professionals learn and conduct research using market-leading tools and evidence-based information. Solutions include Ovid®, the world’s most trusted research platform; Ovid Synthesis, the AI-enabled workflow resource for evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and research; the Lippincott® digital publishing portfolio of over 400 society journals; AudioDigest®, the leading source for on-the-go continuing medical education (CME); and more.

Wolters Kluwer Health provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. The division of Wolters Kluwer supports clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions.

Applications open for OpenAthens UX Award 2024 

OpenAthens launches its 2024 UX Award and invites publishers and other library service vendors of all sizes to apply by 17 November. Jane Charlton, senior marketing manager – community and content, will announce the winner at the online Access Lab event on 26 February 2024. 

OpenAthens UX Award showcases publishers and library service vendors that put users at the heart of their service design. All with the simple aim of providing easy access to content and services. Through this yearly award, OpenAthens aims to inspire publishers and other library service vendors to invest in user experience and deliver simple journeys to their content and services. 

Now in its fifth year, panel judges decided to expand the award beyond publishers to library systems vendors, research and analytics tools, and other library products and services. 

Award organiser, Jane Charlton, explains: 

“Library users access a wide range of data, content and analysis services for their research and studies. By expanding the scope of our UX award we hope more publishers and library service vendors will come forward to share their UX innovations and inspire others.” 

Two new judges have joined the award panel. OpenAthens welcomes Natasha Den Dekker, lead user researcher at Santander and Jason Griffey, director of strategic initiatives at NISO. 

Natasha commented: 

“I’m really excited to be involved with the judging for this award. I’m looking forward to using my expertise as an ex-librarian and a current UX Researcher to fairly assess the applications.” 

Why you should apply 

Librarians and library users highly value simple and easy access to online products and services. It makes perfect sense to keep your users and subscribers happy as they’ll return again and again.  

Librarians are very savvy when it comes to how they spend their budget. And the cost-of-living crisis has only heightened the importance of establishing value for money on library subscriptions. Vendors that deliver a great user experience help to drive increased usage and this is one of the key metrics librarians use to decide where to spend budget.  

Delivering a superior user experience also helps position your product or service above your competitors. Publishers and library service vendors that put their users first and center will get great reviews. User are also more likely to use your product than a competitor that has not made the same investment in product UX. 

You don’t need to be a large vendor to win as nkoda digital sheet music app demonstrated when they won the award in 2021. The esteemed panel of judges will assess all applications based on their merits and how closely they meet the award criteria.  

How to apply 

Find out more about the UX Award criteria and submit your application form by Friday 17 November 2023. Complete the short expression of interest form on the OpenAthens website and you will be sent the application form. 

Previous award winners 

Sage Publishing won this year’s UX Award after they demonstrated investment in a company-wide approach to improving user journey and overall experience. Previous winners include De Gruyter, nkoda and Emerald Publishing. 

Next year’s winner will be announced online at Access Lab on Monday 26 February 2024. 

Contact the UX Award organiser, Jane Charlton, with any queries. 

River Valley helps GigaByte Journal join the “Publish, Review, Curate” Transformation of the Publishing Paradigm

New “Publish, Review, Curate” models of peer-review on showcased by GigaScience Press Journal

Timed for Peer Review Week, GigaScience Press are announcing that their GigaByte Journal has integrated a novel “Publish, Review, Curate” (PRC) peer-review model, in partnership with eLife. Using the Sciety platform GigaByte is now offering a highlighted editor’s assessment of each reviewed preprint, this endorsement helps readers gauge the interest and importance of the work, while also throwing light on the review and assessment process of research.

GigaByte is an Open Science journal that has the principle goal to match the speed of publishing to the speed of research. When it launched in September 2020, it was one of the first journals to mandate the use of preprints, to help increase transparency and speed up the dissemination of research. GigaByte then connected their articles to previously published preprint versions by crosslinking and highlighting these links via an Article Information section on their articles. With the rise of preprint peer review and evaluation policies, the logical next step has been to utilise bioRxiv and Sciety integrations that enable the sharing of these open peer reviews on any associated preprint in bioRxiv and medRxiv. We also share these preprint peer reviews in Sciety “Reviewing Groups” to enable further discoverability and insight for readers.

In a new step, GigaByte is now building on this “publish then review” model of scientific communication by adding an endorsement step by aligning it with eLife’s new “publish, review, curate” model that puts preprints first. This is done using the new “Curating groups” feature from Sciety, to distinguish groups that offer some form of assessment/endorsement of a preprint. These Endorsement statements from GigaByte featured on this page are also highlighted on the original bioRxiv preprint as well as the associated Sciety article page. Altogether, this helps readers see at a glance why this preprint might be important or interesting.

In January 2023, eLife became the first journal to embrace a new scientific publishing model, where every preprint that eLife sends for peer review will be published on their website as a “Reviewed Preprint” together with an assessment, public reviews, and a response from the authors. GigaByte is taking a step towards this “Publish, Review, Curate” (PRC) peer-review model, being the second journal after eLife to post these Editorial endorsements in Sciety “Curating groups”, alongside other evaluating communities such as Biophysics Colab.

GigaByte Chief Editor Scott Edmunds comments on this move, saying “We’d like to thank Sciety for helping us take this step towards meeting our goal of matching the speed of publishing to the speed of research through using their platform”.

Kaveh Bazargan from GigaScience Press publishing partner River Valley Technologies notes that: “River Valley’s systems have been built to support the aims as well as the spirit of Open Science. This includes alignment with the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation which specifically promotes innovative approaches such as preprints and open peer review practices, as used here. Our peer review system, ReView, together with our XML-first end-to-end publishing system enables publishing within 24 hours of acceptance. River Valley platforms allow GigaByte to provide fully open data, accessibility and transparency, revealing the pre-publication and open peer review history. It is a pleasure to work with GigaScience Press with whom we continually push the boundaries.”

Shane Alsop, Community Manager – Outreach, eLife, on behalf of the Sciety Team adds to this: “We’re delighted to be partnering with GigaByte to help facilitate their move towards a “publish first, then review” model of preprint peer-review. GigaByte are now providing an “editors assessment” statement to accompany each reviewed preprint displayed on Sciety. For the first time, these statements will allow multiple communities to strengthen/scrutinise the findings reported in a preprint through cumulative, post-publication review. This approach not only prioritises the importance of research integrity over publication venue, but combines with more traditional outputs of preprint review to make evaluated preprints a first class research object in their own right.

Organisations as diverse as Biophysics CoLab and eLife successfully leverage Sciety to experiment with variations of the “PRC” model, and GigaByte’s own transition signifies a pivotal step towards wider adoption of “PRC”. With GigaByte’s support, we look forward to collaborating with more journals to catalyse wider adoption of more transparent – and equitable – modes of peer review.”

As Open Science advocates this is just an incremental move for the journal, but we anticipate taking future steps to support a preprint-based publishing system. As the theme of Peer Review Week this week is “Peer Review and The Future of Publishing” this is a very timely and practical demonstration of exactly what the future can look like.

Follow GigaByte’s curated content on Sciety here: https://sciety.org/groups/gigabyte/

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