Sciety welcomes Access Microbiology for the public review and curation of microbiology research
12 December 2024
Sciety is pleased to welcome the open research platform Access Microbiology to its community, bringing public evaluation to the latest microbiology and virology research.
With an increasing amount of research being published as preprints, Sciety has been developed by a team within eLife to aggregate reviewed preprints from multiple groups into one place, making them easier to find. These groups include journals and other organisations involved in scientific peer review, such as Biophysics Colab, eLife, GigaByte, Peer Community In, PREreview, and more.
Owned by the Microbiology Society, Access Microbiology is the first society-run open research platform to join this community.
“We’re delighted to welcome Access Microbiology to Sciety,” says Shane Alsop, eLife/Sciety’s Publishing Development Manager. “Sciety’s role is to make sense of the expanding world of preprint evaluation and curation, which takes many forms. Our goal is to bring together diverse communities, including societies, that wish to experiment with these open-science practices. Societies play an important role in communicating new findings, and we’re excited to work with these vital institutions, starting with the Microbiology Society, to help bring open review to a wider community of researchers and readers.”
Previously published as a sound science journal by the Microbiology Society, Access Microbiology was relaunched in 2022 as an innovative open-access, open research platform for members of the Society’s community to share their work rapidly, transparently, and rigorously. The platform supports the publication of replication studies, negative or null results, case reports, research proposals, data management plans, additions to established methods, and interdisciplinary work.
Access Microbiology and Sciety have come together through their shared commitment to open science. The platform has its own homepage on Sciety where users can find out more about Access Microbiology and view its research evaluation activities. Each preprint published in Access Microbiology will be featured on Sciety alongside its peer-review history, including the full text of the editor and reviewer comments for anyone to read.
Helina Marshall, Editor-in-Chief of Access Microbiology, says: “Microbiology is a significant research area with far-ranging implications for human health. Our Society supports and invests in the microbiology community for everyone’s benefit, including the sharing of new findings quickly for anyone who wishes to read, reuse, and build on them in their own work. We’re excited to have a dedicated space on Sciety to showcase new content published in Access Microbiology along with the accompanying peer-review reports, helping readers to find and understand the significance of new research for themselves.”
“The Microbiology Society is paving the way for more society publishers to have their research evaluation activities represented on Sciety and made accessible to all,” Alsop adds. “By partnering with the Microbiology Society and other like-minded groups on Sciety, we hope to work together to help catalyse change in the scientific community towards the wider adoption of open-science practices.”
Sciety continues to aggregate preprint evaluations from a growing number of communities and organisations that are experimenting with models of open review. Others who wish to join Sciety are invited to contact the team at [email protected].
To read more about Access Microbiology and view its evaluation activities on Sciety, visit https://sciety.org/groups/access-microbiology.
And to find out more about groups on Sciety, see https://sciety.org/groups.
Media contacts
Emily Packer, Media Relations Manager
George Litchfield, Marketing and PR Assistant
eLife and Sciety
+44 (0)1223 855373
About Sciety
Sciety offers a free, open, and collaborative space to highlight the latest scientific discoveries. We bring together groups of researchers who are evaluating and curating the preprints they find interesting or important to build trust in the scientific process and enhance the credibility of the research. Be part of the growing network of scientists who are organising, commenting on, and highlighting noteworthy preprints, contributing to a vibrant and connected scientific community. https://sciety.org
About the Microbiology Society
The Microbiology Society is a membership charity and a not-for-profit publisher. Its worldwide membership consists of scientists interested in microbes, their effects, and their practical uses, and who are based in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes, schools, and other organisations. Find out more at https://microbiologysociety.org.
About Access Microbiology
As a sound science, open research platform, Access Microbiology offers a new service for members of the Microbiology Society’s community to disseminate their work rapidly, transparently, and rigorously. It supports the publication of replication studies, negative or null results, research proposals, data management plans, additions to established methods, case reports, software development, educational and outreach methods, and interdisciplinary work. We welcome work from all branches of microbiology and virology. Learn more at https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/acmi.