In the opening ceremony of the annual iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) Scientific Jamboree, PLOS (Public Library of Science) announced their partnership with Breezio and Ars Biotechnica to continue to drive innovation into the scholarly publishing process with a new live peer review model. Since launching its first journal in 2003, PLOS has been a force for transformation in scholarly publishing, breaking with archaic traditions from previous generations. PLOS innovations accelerate science and medicine, from research discovery to influence tracking. Now they hope to do it again and further advance the speed of science by exploring the use of live community-based peer review for submissions from iGEM students.
Ars Biotechnica, a Maryland-based STEM nonprofit, and Breezio, a Maryland startup, which has developed a next generation online community engagement platform, first experimented with this innovative publishing model earlier this year (original press release). Together the two companies hosted an online, community-scale peer review of student manuscripts that were prepared for publication in Biotreks, the first scientific journal for high school synthetic biology. “These students are pioneering a process that could change the way scientific papers are written, edited, and reviewed,“ exclaimed David Rozak, Executive Director of Ars Biotechnica, after the live peer review conference.
This program caught the attention of iGEM partner Nathaniel Gore, Editorial Project Manager of PLOS Collections, who is now helping to introduce the concept to the broader iGEM community. “PLOS and iGEM share a belief in the advancement of scientific communication through open community collaboration,” Nathaniel announced at the opening ceremony. “It’s not just the final research output that is valuable to science, it’s the entire scientific and publishing process.”
Laura Dress, Director of Customer Experience at Breezio has helped lead this project from the beginning and has worked for years to advance the pace and impact that science can have on society. “At Breezio we believe that networked communities have the potential to solve bigger problems, and accomplish more by leveraging the collective knowledge of users in order to advance learning and drive discoveries forward, together, faster.”, said Laura. The partnership with PLOS and Biotreks hopes to do just that for scientific research and publication.
To learn more about this program please contact Breezio; visit our website at www.breezio.com or contact Laura Dress at laura@breezio.com
For information on Biotreks contact David Rozak at david.rozak@arsbiotechnica.org
For information on PLOS contact Nathaniel Gore at collections@plos.org
