eLife is pleased to announce today that its four funders, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome, are expanding their support for the nonprofit organization. lucrative. The new investment will boost eLife’s efforts to openly review and organize research published as preprints.

eLife is transforming research communication to create a future with a diverse global community of scientists producing reliable and open results for the benefit of all. The open access journal eLife was the first step in this initiative. Today, in response to the growing popularity of preprints, the organization has shifted to a new model of ‘publish then revise’ science publishing that emphasizes preprints and public criticism.

“We are delighted that our funders have agreed to invest more in eLife and the ‘publish then revise’ science model,” said Toby Coppel, chairman of the board of eLife and partner of Mosaic Ventures in London. . “Everything eLife does to improve the culture of publishing, technology and research reflects the strong change agenda of these and other research funders, and we look forward to continuing our work. with their support. We cannot express enough gratitude for their continued support for an open future for scientific publication. “

The new funding will allow eLife to advance its vision of a curatorial system around preprints that replaces journal titles as the primary confidence indicator of an article’s perceived quality and impact. As part of this vision, a dedicated team within eLife is developing the Sciety Platform which brings together preprint assessment and preservation in one place, helping people navigate the growing preprint landscape.

Cheryl Moore, Director of Research Programs at Wellcome, says: “We support the development of new technologies that allow publishers to operate journals based on the review and curation of preprints, as this model clearly has enormous benefits for science and research. As such, we are delighted to support eLife’s work on projects such as these that aim to improve the culture and practices of science publishing.

Erin O’Shea, President of HHMI, adds: “From the start, eLife has strived to overcome old publishing constraints, enabling researchers to communicate new sciences effectively. We are excited about eLife’s innovations and look forward to continuing to support joint efforts to make research communication more open and beneficial for all.

The Max Planck Society – eLife’s third founding partner after HHMI and Wellcome – and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation have also renewed their funding by focusing on eLife’s open source technological innovations to improve communication and use of devices. online search results.

Ulman Lindenberger, vice-president of the humanities section of the Max Planck Society and representative on the eLife board of directors, says: “The Max Planck Society strives to make scientific results easily accessible. We and eLife share the view that there is a continuing need for innovation in scientific publishing, including the search for more effective means of evaluation and dissemination. We look forward to continuing our work with eLife over the next several years. “

Siv Andersson, Director of Basic Research at the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, adds: “The development of new technologies and models to ensure rapid publication and evaluation of scientific results in an open manner will be of great benefit to all. . We are delighted to support the continued development of principles and platforms that add value to scientific publishing. “

With this new funding, eLife will reach its 10-year milestone next year in a position of strength. ELife editor-in-chief Michael Eisen expressed gratitude to all funders for their support. “The new model for publishing, reviewing and curating preprints is the future of scientific publishing,” he says. “We are grateful for the support of our funders who have enabled us to lead this movement, and delighted to be working with our community of researchers on this essential endeavor. “

For more details on eLife’s progress from 2012 to 2020, please see our Annual Report.

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eLife is a nonprofit organization created by funders and run by researchers. Our mission is to accelerate discovery by harnessing a research communication platform that encourages and recognizes the most responsible behaviors. We review selected preprints from all areas of biology and medicine, while exploring new ways to improve the way research is evaluated and published. eLife receives financial support and strategic advice from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Company and welcome. Learn more about https://elifesciences.org/about.

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