CEO Stephanie Dawson travelled to Shanghai, China, at the invitation of Shing Jiao Tong University Press in their organizing role for the Third International Academic Publishing Forum on August 19th 2015. The event was hosted by the Association of Chinese University Presses and the Shanghai Press & Publication Administration.

1. ScienceOpen: Rethinking Scholarly Publishing
We are livinginthe informationage andthe internethastrulyandradicallychangedhow we define,
create, access,and use that information.Networksforsharinganddiscoveryhave grownupinall
areas andhave challengedtraditional sourcesandstructures. Sharingratherthanownershipisthe
newnormal forthe upcominggeneration“open”.Whatdoesthismeanfor scholarly publishing?
Scientificinformationhaslongheldaprivilegedplace foritstruth-value.Publishersof scholarly
research have builtupcomplex editorial and peer-review processestoensure the validityand
noveltyof the researchresults theypublish.Buttheirtraditional businessmodel,basedonlibrary
subscriptionstojournals, dependsonaneconomyof ownership(i.e.copyright)thatisoutof step
withhowscientistsnowshare,use,andreuse scientificliterature onthe internet.Itistime torethink
scholarly publishingandthiswasourgoal whenwe setout to build the researchandpublishing
networkScienceOpen.
1. The futureof scholarly publishing
Withyearlyca. 1.8 millionarticlespublishedinaround28,000 scholarlyjournals,itseemscounter-
intuitive tosay,butthe scientificcommunity needsevenmore publications: negative results,all
clinical trials,protocols,datapapers,observations.We alsoneedtoinclude more researchoutput
fromhighgrowth areassuch as China,Brazil andIndia.One of the biggestchallengesfacing
researchers,institutesandscholarlypublishersalreadyishow to evaluate thisswellingtideof
information.We willneednew toolstomake scientificcommunicationfaster,easierandmore
collaborative,while still rewardingfirstclassideasandresults.AtScienceOpenwe believethatan
open,networkmodel isthe mostefficientwaytoachieve these goals.We envision ourselvesasa
communicationplatformtoserve the needsof the researchcommunity,universitiesandinstitutes,
fundingbodiesandthe scholarly publishingindustry.
1. It must be OPEN
The firststepis free andimmediate accesstoinformation. AtScienceOpen we are idealists:we
believethatknowledge drivescreativity,innovationanddevelopment. Butwe also know thatyoung
scientistslookingforsolutionsandideaswillshare themwiththeirnetwork,regardlessof copyright
status.So as pragmatistswe chose a businessmodelthatencouragessharing.Everythingwe publish
inour ScienceOpenjournalshasacreative commonsCC BY 4.0 attribution license.
Whenresearcharticlesare openwitha CC BY license,excitingthingscanhappen. OpenAccessis
makinglarge numbersof structuredresearcharticlesacrossall publishersfreelyavailable. We
wantedtoplay withthe large datasetandsee whatwas possible. Beyondpublishingourown
content, ScienceOpenisaplatformthataggregatesOpenAccessarticles acrosspublishers withover
1.6 million OpenAccessarticlestodate.Forthese openarticleswe have minedand exposedcitation,
authoringandpublisherinformationtocreate new discoverytoolsforresearcherstofindandshare
relevantarticles. Articlesandauthorscanbe rankedby numberof citationsinthe ScienceOpen
database – a relative numbertohelpresearchersorientthemselves.Thishasallowedustoadd
metadatafor closedaccessarticlestothe systemfora total of roughly 10 millionarticles.We also
provide ametricsbadge (from Altmetric) forall contenttofurthercapture activityinsocial networks,
blogs,andothersourceson the web. Oneach article page we displaydetailedarticle metrics. Allof
these discoveryservicesare completelyfree forresearcherstouse.

2. 2. Networks work
Some of the mostsuccessful companiesof the lastdecade have beenbasedon the collective power
of usernetworks –Amazon,Airbnb,Spotify,TripAdvisor, SinaWeiBo–the listgoeson. The collective
recommendationsof ourpeershelpustomake decisionsonwhere tostay,whatto buy,what to
reador listento.Isthispeerendorsementsysteminfactso differentfromthe basictenetsof peer
review?A recommendationfromawell-respectedscientistisastrong motivationtoengage withan
article.Asthe networkgrows, researcherswillbe able toconnectwithpeerstodiscovernew articles
– withoutthe “noise”of broadersocial networkssuchasTwitterorFacebook.
A core ScienceOpenideaisto directthe powerof professional networks toevaluatingresearch
results. Anyresearcherwiththe appropriatequalifications(5publishedarticlesandORCIDID)
registeredwithScienceOpen canwrite anopenreview foranyof the 10 millionarticles andrecords
on our site.Reviewsmustbe writtenwithfull identitydisclosedin ordertosupportan open
discourse.Forourown journalswe have anovel conceptof publishingsubmittedarticles
immediatelyafteraneditorial check,andthenopeningthemupforatransparent “post-publication
peerreviewtospeedupthe processof scientificcommunication.
3. Researchers are looking for information, notjournals
Researcherssearchingthe scientificliterature are lookingforaspecificanswertoa problem, an
overviewof anewfieldorinspirationfortheirnextstep.Nearly all scientistsbegintheirsearchfrom
a scientificsearchenginesuchasGoogle Scholar,PubMed,Scopus,etc.dependingontheirfield.If
theyfindan article withthe informationtheyneed,then the journal publisherisonly asecondary
concern. Thisnewsearch mode has inspiredawhole generationof “megajournals”suchas PLOSONE
and ScienceOpenResearch asopposedto multiple nichejournals.
In a newtrend,manypublishersof megajournalshave beguncreating topical collectionspost-
publication fromthe wide range of articlestheypublish.Thisgivesthemmore flexibilitytopublish
single articlesquicklyandtomake collectionsof currenthottopics. Butfromthe researcher
perspective,thisisonlysomewhatof interest.Forexample,if Iamworkingonmalaria,I want tofind
the bestarticlesacrossall publishers,notjustthe bestfroma single publisher. AtScienceOpenwe
have createda collectionfunctionthatallowseditorstochoose articlesintheirfieldacrossall
publishers,write an editorialandcommentoneacharticle.Thistool shouldunite the mostimportant
aspectsof journals – topical bundling,editorialselection, trustandreliability –and openupnew
avenuesof researchevaluation beyond the journal impactfactor.
But publishersandjournal editorsare alsoalreadydoinganexcellentjobinbundlingcontent. We
wouldlike toworktogethertohelpthemgetmore visibilityfortheircontentbyhighlightingtheir
journalsonthe ScienceOpensite,aswe now doin a pilotprojectwiththe publisherThieme,atop
Germanmedical publisher.We alsoofferinstitutesthe opportunitytopresenttheiroutputon
ScienceOpen.
4. The futureof scholarly publishing
It seemscounter-intuitive tosaybutthe scientificcommunity needsevenmore publications:
negative results,all clinical trials,protocols,datapapers,observations.We alsoneedtoinclude more
research outputfromhighgrowthareas such as China,Brazil andIndia.One of the biggestchallenges
facingresearchers,institutesandscholarlypublishers already ishow toevaluate thisswellingtideof
information.We willneednew toolsto make scientificcommunicationfaster,easierandmore
collaborative,while still rewardingfirstclassideasandresults.AtScienceOpenwe believethatan

3. open,networkmodel isthe mostefficientwaytoachieve these goals. We wouldlike towork
togetherwithpublisherstohelpthemgetmore visibilityfortheirOpenAccesscontentby
highlightingtheirjournalsonthe ScienceOpen site,aswe now doin a pilotprojectwiththe publisher
Thieme,atop Germanmedical publisher.We alsoofferinstitutesthe opportunitytopresenttheir
outputon ScienceOpen.We see ourselvesasa communicationplatformtoserve the needsof the
researchcommunity,universitiesandinstitutes,fundingbodies andthe publishingindustry.
Collectivelyourscientistsare workinghard onour behalf tosolve the toughestproblemsof mankind.
Communicatingabouttheirprogressandsharingtheirfindingsshouldspeedupthe process,notslow
it down. AtScienceOpenwe are buildingtoolsforthe future tomake the communicationand
evaluationof science more efficient,more global,andmore open.