A new Episode of Epistemicast is available!
The traditional academic publishing system evolved in an era of printing presses and cadence-based journals. The Publish Review Curate (PRC) model offers a way to finally drag this system into the age of an open, collaborative, real-time Internet.
PRC not only turns the traditional publishing model on its head, by changing the nature and dynamics of scholarly discourse, it has the potential to alter fundamental aspects of research and academia itself. The model offers: greater openness, improved collaboration and increases in the speed at which knowledge and discoveries are shared. The publish first paradigm changes the very essence of review and curation. This, in turn, has the potential to alter the way in which researchers, reviewers, and their academic careers are evaluated.
In this Epistemicast series, we speak with the people who have inspired and pioneered the PRC Model, alongside other experts in broader Open Access and Open Scholarship. After a full introduction to the model, we will explore its benefits and the motivations of those involved as well as some of the nuances and potential pitfalls that should be considered as the model evolves and matures.
In Episode one, we delve into the world of the preprint as a precursor to defining the PRC model and its fundamentals. Following this, in as far as it is possible to separate out the different elements of PRC we explore the concept of publish-first in more detail, looking at what this achieves and the knock on effects.
Interviewees
Bodo Stern (ORCID) - Chief of Strategic Initiatives at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Stern’s influential paper: A proposal for the future of scientific publishing in the life sciences (Published: February 12, 2019 A proposal for the future of scientific publishing in the life sciences), written together with HHMI President Erin K. O’Shea, is widely cited as the inspiration for the PRC model. He continues to work with O’Shea and the HHMI executive team with a focus on innovation in scientific publishing and the assessment of researchers.
Damian Pattinson (ORCID) - Executive Director at eLife Publications.
Following a stint at the British Medical Journal as Scientific Editor on BMJ Clinical Evidence and BMJ Best Practice, Pattinson’s career in academic publishing has seen him at the vanguard of Open Access and innovation in publishing, open review and curation models. In 2010, he joined the pioneering PLOS ONE mega journal, first as Executive Editor and then as Editorial Director. He then moved to Research Square as VP of Publishing Innovation and led the development of the Research Square preprint platform, before joining eLife in 2020.
Johan Rooryk - Executive Director of cOAlition S
As a driving force behind cOAlition S, Rooryck has played a crucial role in promoting the European drive towards Open Access in academic publishing. Supported by Science Europe and hosted and administered by the European Science Fund, cOAlition S is an alliance of national research agencies, and global funding institutions dedicated to ensuring that: all scholarly publications based on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional, and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access venues (journals or platforms) or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.
Alongside his activism with cOAlition S, Rooryck is also a visiting professor of French linguistics at the University of Leiden and editor-in-chief of the Fair Open Access journal Glossa: a journal of general linguistics.