What does it mean to scale?
The phrase "open, trusted, and at scale" is often repeated at industry events and conversations. For us, innovation is a constant journey, and this phrase fuels us to rework and revamp our products. Our product team recently enhanced the Integrity On Demand, built to identify misconduct and errors in research on an unprecedented scale.
As the volume of published research grows - over 5.14 million research papers published each year - the rate of misconduct or simple human error also grows. In order to restore trust in research, we have to adopt more efficient approaches to evaluation, on top of traditional peer review.
Scaling up publishing workflows means adjusting our workflows and redefining user experiences, facilitating the accelerated submission, evaluation, and sharing of their work.
Learn how we’re using scalability to boost integrity by learning more about our products in our Release Notes.
Streamlined quality control
In our recent Research Integrity Survey, we found that for almost 80% of participants, research integrity is the biggest issue facing scholarly publishing. As we optimize our workflows, we gain the invaluable gift of time, allowing us to focus on this issue more effectively.
We recently enhanced our Integrity Manager, a product which evaluates research efficiently and effectively through robust checks no matter what publishing workflow is used. Now, by enhancing the paper upload flow, users can conveniently name requests, simplifying tracking and contextual understanding of volumes. When navigating our 'Integrity On Demand workspace, editorial teams now have more time for their core work. Meanwhile publishers can rest assured as they protect the integrity of their members' ideas, preserve their time, and secure their financial resources across every stage of the publishing journey.
Reduced retractions
The increase in retractions due to research misconduct is a growing concern for all academic stakeholders. Make no mistake, retractions are an important part of healthy science, but they can also have disastrous consequences for authors and publishers when publicized.
Websites like Retraction Watch provide public updates on the latest instances of scientific fraud that can threaten the prestige of scholarly publications. But journals stand to lose more than their name due to retractions. They also threaten their time and financial security.
By investing in scalable integrity solutions, authors gain extra time to meticulously review their work, while automated workflows also act as an additional safeguard for publishers, ensuring publication with confidence.
Enhancing peer review
Discussions at recent conferences also centered on the transformation of peer review.
Only 32.3% of scientists accept an editor's request
to review a paper, on average. This has disastrous results for peer review’s integrity, with the current system catching errors only 25 and 30% of the time. Peer review needs an overhaul, but how? Or Is peer review simply no longer an effective form of academic evaluation?
At Morressier, we believe in the future of peer review. We are building a future where increased efficiency will ease the burden on the few who volunteer as reviewers, and with more time available in our academic community through efficient and scalable workflows, we anticipate a growing pool of academics participating in peer review, revitalizing this necessary element of academia.
Peer review holds significant importance, but it's equally crucial to enhance the robustness of alternative evaluation methods outside of peer review. This is why we continually improve our Integrity products to ensure they achieve their utmost potential.
Conclusion
We’re constantly building products that reflect the needs and concerns of the scholarly landscape. While this month, the theme of our product enhancements centered around scalability, there’s much more to come in the next few months.
Make sure to tune into our monthly Product Release Notes updates here on our blog and website to stay in the loop about how we’re reshaping our workflows for better integrity.
