The Microbiology Society will be launching an open research platform in October 2021. Funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the platform will incorporate many of the elements of a preprint server with our current sound science journal, Access Microbiology, in an effort to improve the rigor, reproducibility and transparency of the academic record. This webinar will present an outline of the project and how the preprint and peer review process will operate on the new platform.