Annual Report: 2023 in review

It is probably safe to say that eLife has never experienced a year like 2023. My first year as Chair of the Board could hardly have been more exciting and, at times, dramatic. In January we launched our new publishing model, which focused on the review and curation of preprints and replaced accept–reject decisions with nuanced assessments, using structured vocabularies to describe the significance of the findings and the strength of evidence being reported.

We have been delighted with how well the model has gone. Contrary to expectations in some quarters, we continued to receive a healthy volume of submissions, with numbers growing over the course of the year. The model allows for a much shorter time to publication and so it was only a few weeks before we started posting Reviewed Preprints alongside Versions of Record from the legacy model on our website. Feedback for these articles was incredibly positive, and exciting new research published, fully peer-reviewed, in a fraction of the time it would take in a traditional journal.

The reason we changed our publishing model was that we believe the current system of incentives and rewards puts too much emphasis on the title of the journal a researcher publishes in. Our model provides the means to change this dynamic, focusing on what is published rather than where it is published. But it is not enough to simply provide an alternative model – we have always understood that there needs to be accompanying changes in research culture to support these new systems. We have therefore invested in community outreach to encourage institutions and funders to embrace new publishing models, and have highlighted the numerous positive stories we’re hearing from researchers who have published in eLife using our new model.

We have also continued to build open-source technology to support our endeavours, including new software to display Reviewed Preprints in a dynamic and compelling fashion, and added new features and groups to Sciety, expanding the number of reviewed preprints that are now discoverable.

In October, we parted ways with our Editor-in-Chief, Michael Eisen, and want to acknowledge the extraordinary vision and leadership he provided to eLife, which is allowing us to build on his legacy as we grow our publishing model. We were very grateful to our Deputy Editors, Tim Behrens and Detlef Weigel, who agreed to step into the role of co-Editors-in-Chief until we appoint a permanent replacement.

By demonstrating that the ‘publish, review, curate’ publishing model is better for both individual researchers and for science in general, we are creating an environment for new innovation in scholarly publishing, and are already seeing other organisations and institutions adopt these practices. It will be exciting to see how the movement grows over the coming years and, as always, we will continue to share news and updates openly.

Joanne Hackett
Head of Genomic and Precision Medicine, IQVIA
Chair, eLife Board of Directors

When we first announced our new model in 2022, we highlighted our plan to officially launch it in January 2023 – and indeed, by the end of the month, we had put out the call for authors to start submitting their work. Having made the switch, we carried out a significant amount of outreach activities throughout the year, with attendance at a number of scientific conferences – including the annual meetings of the Biophysical Society, American Society of Human Genetics, and Society for Neuroscience – and at publishing events including the SSP Annual Meeting, ALPSP Conference and Awards, and Munin Conference on Scholarly Publishing. The initial announcement about our new model in 2022 led to vibrant discussions among the scientific and publishing communities, and we were pleased to see – and be part of – the ongoing conversations following the launch.

Throughout the year, we also worked with Incentivizing Collaborative and Open Research (ICOR) to report on the progress of the new model at three and six months on. Published in May, the first update showed that basic publishing statistics had not changed, community feedback was positive and submissions were steady. Following this positive start, the six-month update, issued in September, discussed how submissions again remained steady, Reviewed Preprints were visible earlier than traditionally peer-reviewed articles, and our authors and editors reported largely favourable experiences with the new model, with some concerns about quality and suggestions regarding the process being voiced. Again, we were pleased to see the community response to these updates, including interest in how the model has been working and what we learnt – and continue to learn – behind the scenes.

There were some notable comings and goings at eLife alongside this activity in 2023. In January, we welcomed four new members of our Board of Directors to help steer us in our ‘publish, review, curate’ mission. They joined at an exciting time for our organisation – just ahead of the launch of the new model – bringing with them an extensive range of experience and perspectives.

We also said goodbye to a number of our community members. First, we gave our thanks to Anna Akhmanova for her service as she stepped down from her role as eLife Deputy Editor in February, and we later appointed Yamini Dalal as a new Deputy Editor in September. With the end of the year also came the departure of our Editor-of-Chief Michael Eisen in October, and Deputy Editor Mone Zaidi in November, and the announcement that Deputy Editors Detlef Weigel and Tim Behrens would step up to share the role of Editor-in-Chief.

Through all of these changes, we remained focused on our mission to create a more open, inclusive and equitable future for research communication, with our new model paving the way. We continued towards making this a reality through our open-source technology efforts and community engagement initiatives.

At the end of 2022, eLife’s Technology and Innovation team outlined their steps to building the ‘publish, review, curate’ ecosystem of the future. For them, 2023 involved the ongoing development of open-source platforms that support the display, review, organisation, dissemination and curation of open research content. These include the Enhanced Preprint Platform that powers eLife’s Reviewed Preprints; Sciety, which facilitates the discovery and organisation of preprints and helps promote groups engaged in a flavour of the ‘publish, review, curate’ model; and Kotahi for publishing all of eLife’s public reviews and managing the peer-review process for several reviewing groups on Sciety. Each of these tools represents pieces of the larger ecosystem that includes preprint servers (such as bioRxiv, medRxiv, Research Square and SciELO Preprints), community-led publishing platforms (such as PubPub), and reviewer-centric websites (including PREreview) that can all grow by working together.

Back in 2022, we and PREreview announced our extended partnership to boost the engagement of early-career researchers, and researchers from traditionally underrepresented groups, in the public review of preprints. Our partnership involved further integrating PREreview into Sciety and collaborating on new opportunities for more researchers to participate in public review. In July 2023, our organisations announced support from the COAR Notify Initiative to help strengthen the connections between preprint review and curation services for authors, journals and the wider scientific community. This project involves putting in place the basic infrastructure and protocols needed for developing these connections. The aim is to lower existing technological and cost barriers so that as many of these services and their stakeholders as possible can more easily participate in the ‘publish, review, curate’ world.

eLife’s communities were also fully engaged with our efforts to promote the new model, as well as open and responsible research practices more broadly. We summarise just some of their outreach activities in 2023 below. Once again, all of these projects were underpinned by eLife’s core values of openness, integrity and inclusiveness in research and research communication.

In February, our Community Ambassadors published a reflective article on their recent work with eLife to help reform research culture and make science more accessible and reproducible. The article highlighted notable projects from the previous year, such as the two-day Einstein Foundation Awards symposium on ‘Global Dynamics in Responsible Research’ and the translation of materials from the Open Peer Reviewers in Africa training course. Developed by partner organisations AfricArXiv, Eider Africa, eLife, PREreview and the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa), Open Peer Reviewers in Africa aimed to raise awareness around preprints and foster the participation of African researchers in peer review. Both eLife and PREreview co-published a recap of the pilot following its conclusion, also in February 2023.

In April, we opened applications for candidates to join our Early-Career Advisory Group (ECAG). It was an exciting time to join the group as we increased opportunities for working closely with the eLife journal staff and editors on our new publishing model. In August, we announced three elected new members from Middle East/Western Asia, Southeast Asia and Northern America. Soon afterwards, in September, the ECAG hosted a webinar to discuss the first six months of eLife’s new model. Some members also gave separate talks on the new model at their institutions in Australia, Germany, India, the US and other countries across the globe.

In April and September, some of our Community Ambassadors ran two regional preprint events in Latin America and Asia, respectively. The first event, ‘Preprints in Latin America’, was held over two days and led by David Ramírez and other members of our community. Hosted at Universidad de Concepción, Chile, and held in Spanish, the event included discussions of the importance of preprints, open review and open science for the future of research in Latin America. The second event, called ‘Open Science across Asia’, was a one-hour webinar chaired by Rio Sugimura, raising awareness of similar open science practices across this region.

Sandwiched between these events was the fifth edition of the Ben Barres Spotlight Awards in July, shining a spotlight on pioneering researchers from groups that are underrepresented in biology and medicine, or from countries with limited research funding. For the third consecutive year, the awards welcomed applications from authors of preprints that have been reviewed publicly by eLife or other reviewing groups on Sciety. We were also proud to make the awards even more inclusive by expanding the eligibility criteria to specifically include neurodivergent researchers for the first time. In September, we announced a record 14 award recipients from nine countries, who had demonstrated the greatest potential of an award to promote catalytic changes for their research, careers or communities.

Finally, and also in September, we set up the eLife Community Alumni Network – a global platform for former eLife Community participants. This network enables the community to connect with like-minded individuals, promoting professional growth and nurturing meaningful connections for successful collaboration. We received 170 sign-ups to the Alumni following its launch in September. This number has remained steady since then, and we hope to welcome many more members over the coming months.

eLife once again published a significant number of research articles in 2023, covering all areas of the life sciences and medicine, along with Magazine articles on topics of broader interest. We highlight some of these articles below.

Research highlights

Below are some additional highlights selected from the 1,229 research articles and 1,575 Reviewed Preprints (total number of versions) published in eLife in 2023.

Hodel et al. demonstrated that infection with the bacteria Fusobacterium nucleatum, linked with gum disease and bad breath, may cause a small increase in the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Image credit: Public domain

Jangir et al. reported that the overuse of the antimicrobial colistin in agriculture and medicine may have led to the emergence of bacteria that are more resistant to the human immune system.

Image credit: Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

Yeun Jr et al. developed a method of bulk-producing cell-cultured fat tissue which could be applied to the production of synthetic meat, giving it a more authentic texture and flavour.

Image credit: Public domain

Pan et al. reported that inactive cells in the vertebrae could be targeted using anti-senescent drugs to relieve the spinal sensitivity that causes lower back pain.

Image credit: Arpit from Pixabay

Grathwol et al. combined DNA from a mummified baboon with historical accounts to provide evidence connecting the ancient Egyptian trade of baboons with the ancient port city of Adulis.

Image credit: N. J. Dominy (CC BY 4.0)

Zheng et al. provided insights into the physiological mechanisms of the deep-sea Planctomycetes bacteria, revealing its unique characteristics such as being the only known Phycisphaerae to use a budding mode of division.

Image credit: Rikuan Zheng (CC BY 4.0)

Trautman et al. investigated the relationship between a high-protein diet and resistance exercise in mice, shedding light on why this type of diet is healthy in athletes but promotes disease and reduces lifespan in others.

Image credit: Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

And a study from Karelina et al. presented findings with broad implications for the use of AlphaFold 2 models in ligand binding pose modelling – a common task in protein structure modelling.

Image credit: Boghog, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In 2023, the median time from submission to publication of Reviewed Preprints (first version) was 89 days. The median time from initial decision to acceptance of legacy-model papers was 231 days, showing that Reviewed Preprints help researchers to communicate their findings more quickly. We also report on the volume and publication of papers in our new and legacy models in 2023, along with our Community numbers, below.