Taylor & Francis and Cambridge University Press Join Blockchain for Peer Review Project
Taylor & Francis Group and Cambridge University Press join pilot project to test blockchain technologies applications to peer review.
Boston, US, London, UK, Thursday 26 April, 9am:
Two more publishers have joined the initiative, announced in March 2018, which focuses on the problems of research reproducibility, recognition of reviewers and the rising burden of the peer-review process. The project will develop a protocol where information about peer review activities (submitted by publishers) are stored on a blockchain. This will allow the review process to be independently validated, and data to be fed to relevant vehicles to ensure recognition and validation for reviewers. By sharing peer review information, while adhering to laws on privacy, data protection and confidentiality, we hope to foster innovation and increase interoperability.
Taylor & Francis and Cambridge University Press join Springer Nature as publisher partners, all three organisations will share key information around publisher and peer review workflows, and make a number of journals available to the pilot for development purposes. Katalysis will provide technical expertise to the creation of the test platform and ORCID will share insights on personal identifiers and authentication. Digital Science will continue to manage this non-commercial industry initiative.
Deborah Kahn, Publishing Director, and lead on the project for Taylor & Francis says; “At a time when trust and transparency are increasingly important, high quality peer review is fundamental to the scholarly communication process. The use of blockchain to help to solve some of the current challenges in peer review is a timely initiative, and we are delighted to be able to contribute to its success.”
Brigitte Shull, Director of Scholarly Communications R&D from Cambridge University Press says: “Peer review is one of the most vital services we provide to the academic communities we work with and this includes the exploration of new technologies and processes where it offers an opportunity for better peer review outcomes. We are excited to learn more about the ways in which blockchain applications will help us to innovate and evolve as an industry.”
Joris van Rossum, Director of Special Projects at Digital Science and Project Lead, commented: ‘I’m delighted that CUP and Taylor & Francis have joined the initiative at this early stage. Together with Springer Nature, we now have a fantastic group of publishers representing a full range of academic subjects and a variety of peer review models. This kind of partnership is vital to industry wide pilots, and allows us to effectively investigate the potential of blockchain to improve the peer review process.’
For more information about the project visit www.blockchainpeerreview.org
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Contact
Julia Giddings
j.giddings@digital-science.com
Notes for editors
About Digital Science
Digital Science is a technology company working to make research more efficient. We invest in, nurture and support innovative businesses and technologies that make all parts of the research process more open and effective. Our portfolio includes admired brands including Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, ReadCube, Symplectic, IFI Claims, GRID, Overleaf, Labguru, BioRAFT, PeerWith, TetraScience and Transcriptic. We believe that together, we can help researchers make a difference. Visit www.digital-science.com
About Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life. As one of the world’s leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works our content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Science, and Technology and Medicine. From our network of offices in Oxford, New York, Philadelphia, Boca Raton, Boston, Melbourne, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Stockholm, New Delhi and Johannesburg, Taylor & Francis staff provide local expertise and support to our editors, societies and authors and tailored, efficient customer service to our library colleagues. Visit taylorandfrancisgroup.com.
About Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Its extensive peer-reviewed publishing lists comprise 50,000 titles covering academic research and professional development, over 380 research journals, as well as school-level education and English language teaching. Playing a leading role in today’s international market place, Cambridge University Press has over 50 offices around the globe, and it distributes its products to nearly every country in the world.
Visit www.cambridge.org
About Katalysis
Katalysis is a startup based in Amsterdam, founded by Alex Tran-Qui and Eveline Klumpers. Katalysis develops software based on smart contract blockchain technology aimed to help the publishing industry with the transition from off- to online. Their product Katalysis DecPub (Katalysis Decentralized Publishing) is the first blockchain based implementation used in the publishing industry in the Netherlands. Visit https://www.katalysis.io/
About Springer Nature
Springer Nature advances discovery by publishing robust and insightful research, supporting the development of new areas of knowledge, making ideas and information accessible around the world, and leading the way on open access. Key to this is our ability to provide the best possible service to the whole research community: helping authors to share their discoveries; enabling researchers to find, access and understand the work of others; supporting librarians and institutions with innovations in technology and data; and providing quality publishing support to societies.
As a research publisher, Springer Nature is home to trusted brands including Springer, Nature Research, BMC, Palgrave Macmillan and Scientific American. Springer Nature is also a leading educational and professional publisher, providing quality content through a range of innovative platforms, products and services. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals and resources reach millions of people. For more information, please visit springernature.com and @SpringerNature.
About ORCID
ORCID’s vision is a world where all who participate in research and innovation, from imagining to building and managing, are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, and borders, and time. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research and innovation activities. We provide open tools that enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and affiliations. We provide this service to help people find information and to simplify reporting and analysis. Visit https://orcid.org/
