Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) to benefit from world-leading research data and analytics tools

Tuesday 13 May 2025

Digital Science, a technology company serving stakeholders across the research ecosystem, will offer U.S. government libraries access to some of its most powerful research data and analytics tools under a new partnership with the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK).

“As an approved FEDLINK vendor, we’re excited that three of Digital Science’s flagship solutions will be available to FEDLINK libraries, helping to drive discoveries, analysis, actionable insights, reporting, and planning across U.S. government branches,” said Duane Willams, Managing Director, Global Governments and Non-Profits, Digital Science.

The three Digital Science solutions now available to FEDLINK libraries and agencies are:

Dimensions – hosting the largest collection of interconnected global research data, Dimensions re-imagines research discovery with access to grants, publications, clinical trials, patents, and policy documents all in one place. Dimensions helps researchers discover deeper insights from more sources in less time, guide collection decisions with data, and strengthen library planning and reporting with actionable intelligence.

Altmetric – a leading provider of alternative research metrics, Altmetric helps everyone involved in research to gauge the impact of their work. Altmetric’s powerful technology searches thousands of online sources, revealing where research is being shared and discussed. See who’s talking about your institution’s research, show real-world impact, and highlight popular research for promotion or outreach.

ReadCube – a leader in scalable literature workflow solutions, ReadCube helps individuals and organizations focus on the breakthrough work that matters most by transforming the way scholarly literature is managed, monitored and reviewed. ReadCube makes it easier to access and manage articles, supports researchers with smart tools, and speeds up literature reviews.

Digital Science FEDLINK Vendor Contract: LCFDL25D0002

Vendor Code: DG

Discover more about Digital Science’s solutions at the FEDLINK Spring Expo (Thursday 15 May 2025).

Find out more at Digital Science’s FEDLINK information page.

About FEDLINK

The Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) is an organization of federal agencies working together to achieve the optimum use of the resources and facilities of federal libraries and information centers by promoting common services, coordinating and sharing available resources, and providing continuing professional education for federal library and information staff. FEDLINK serves as a forum for the discussion of the policies, programs, procedures, and technologies that affect federal libraries and the information services they provide to their agencies, Congress, the federal courts, and the American people.

About the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States – and extensive materials from around the world – both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media contact

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

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Thursday 27 February 2025

Digital Science has today announced new enhancements to Symplectic Elements, which will now offer the ability to embed AI-generated summaries for publication abstracts within a researcher’s public profile. 

Symplectic Elements, a leading research information management system (RIMS), enables the creation of comprehensive public profiles. These profiles are hosted on sleek, modern, and intuitive online portals that offer advanced search and discovery capabilities while ensuring alignment with organizational branding. Profiles can be made available not only for researchers and faculty but also for equipment, services, and other institutional resources. 

Symplectic Elements currently underpins the profiling portals for over 70 organizations, including academic institutions (such as University College London, University of Oxford and Virginia Tech), consortia (Ohio Innovation Exchange) and governmental organizations (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation).

With the introduction of cutting-edge AI functionality, abstract summaries can now be displayed within a researcher’s public profile. These AI summaries can be generated on-demand by a visitor to provide a concise, at-a-glance synopsis of research outputs. Using the publication title and abstract as a source, the Dimensions powered system generates a summary, key highlights, and top keywords, helping visitors quickly assess the relevance of an output to their research – increasing the discoverability of research work, without adding extra administrative burden to faculty members. This new AI summarization functionality operates in a private and secure environment and opt-out is available at both an institutional / organization level and at an individual level.

“AI is transforming the way we manage, and share information, and Digital Science is proud to lead the way with solutions that enable the academic community to maximize its research impact,” said Jonathan Breeze, EVP Academic Markets at Digital Science. “Adding AI-powered summaries to Symplectic Elements public profiles will aid research discoverability and demonstrates Digital Science’s commitment to making use of AI technologies to support the research community.”

“This is another step in Digital Science’s program of AI-based product enhancements that work synergistically with research workflows,” said Daniel Hook, CEO of Digital Science. “Part of being a responsible contributor to infrastructure in the scholarly space is to ensure that new functionality is augmentative and safe to use and we pride ourselves on an incremental approach designed to support researchers at all stages of their career.”

About Symplectic

Symplectic works in pursuit of the advancement of knowledge, delivering flexible research management solutions that help government and federal departments, funding organisations and academic institutions achieve their research goals. Its flagship products include Symplectic Elements, a research information management system that captures, analyses and showcases scholarly activities, and Symplectic Grant Tracker, providing specialist tools to streamline the grants management lifecycle.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media contact

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

The post Digital Science adds AI-powered summaries to Symplectic Elements to drive research discoverability appeared first on Digital Science.

Tuesday 11 February 2024

Digital Science has awarded its latest Catalyst Grants to two innovative teams, supporting their technology ideas aimed at safeguarding research integrity and strengthening trust in science.

The winners will use the funding and mentorship from Digital Science to develop their ideas, both of which include enhanced dashboards – visualizations based on available data – to flag retracted or questionable research papers.

The winning applications from Digital Science’s 2024 Catalyst Grant round announced today are:

• PostPub – led by Dr Achal Agrawal (Founder), with Dr Moumita Koley (Senior Research Analyst, DST-Center for Policy Research, and Research Fellow, RoRI, UK)
• VIRUS (Visualization of Irregular Research Under Scrutiny) – led by Dr Lonni Besançon, with Dr Fabrice Frank

PostPub – based in India

This team aims to address a lack of awareness of research misconduct as well as a lack of accountability for those engaged in it. PostPub, which has already established its own Retraction Dashboard, will draw on Digital Science data to extend the dashboard. The dashboard will visualize gaps in the data-sharing practices of researchers across countries and journals, and journal response times when integrity issues are flagged, and will flag irregular activity. PostPub also aims to create a notification system to alert responsible parties about these irregularities, and to track actions taken, helping to improve accountability in research.

VIRUS – based in Sweden

This team is developing a real-time visualization system and dashboard intended to be used by scientific “sleuths”, as well as research integrity teams from publishers, editorial teams in journals, and universities. The system will keep records of papers that have been flagged as questionable, as well as their impact on several scholarly measures – such as citations, altmetrics, and policy attention – to better understand the potentially harmful impact these papers could have. The team aims to move away from smaller, curated subsets of papers to using much wider databases, such as Digital Science’s own Dimensions, the world’s most complete database of linked research information.

PostPub’s Dr Achal Agrawal said: “We are honored to receive the Catalyst Grant from Digital Science, enabling us to take the research integrity work we have begun to the next stage of development. Through our work, we hope to incentivize researchers, universities and publishers to do the right thing and encourage greater responsibility for research integrity. In the long term, we hope our work will help in reducing research malpractices and increase transparency with respect to actions taken by various stakeholders.”

VIRUS’s Dr Lonni Besançon said: “We are both happy and honored to receive this Catalyst Grant from Digital Science in what we hope to be a successful venture coordinated with the research and sleuthing of Forensics Scientometrics. We believe our system has a particularly important role to play in visually assessing and communicating the impact of questionable papers which are still cited or used in policy documents or clinical guidelines. We hope VIRUS will make it easier to prioritize investigations and editorial decisions and help provide a faster and more efficient decontamination of the scientific literature. Ultimately, we anticipate that this work will be the first of a long collaboration with Digital Science and its amazing team.”

Digital Science CEO Dr Daniel Hook said: “I congratulate our new winners of the Digital Science Catalyst Grant. Each of this year’s winners has approached a key issue of research integrity from an innovative angle, and focusing on practical solutions that have the potential to safeguard research and build people’s trust in science. I also want to thank Dr Leslie McIntosh, a prior Catalyst winner and VP of Research Integrity at Digital Science, for working with our Catalyst team, headed by Steve Scott, to bring about this integrity-focused Catalyst Grant.  We look forward to mentoring the successful teams to make the most of the Catalyst Grant and to take their ideas to wider audiences.”

Steve Scott, Director of Portfolio Development at Digital Science, said: “We’ve been impressed by the excellence of this year’s entries in the Digital Science Catalyst Grant. Our focus this year on research integrity demonstrates our commitment to addressing some of the biggest issues facing the research ecosystem today. The innovative solutions presented by our winning teams show great promise, and we’re excited to see where they will go from here.”

About Catalyst Grant

The Digital Science Catalyst Grant is an international initiative to support innovation in new software tools and technologies to advance research and create meaningful change.

The program supports and invests in early-stage ideas in the novel use of technology, with an award of up to £25,000 for the most promising ideas that aid research and further its impact on society.

Now in its 14th year, the Catalyst Grant is awarded to innovative individuals or startups, without the need for a complete business or development plan. Several previous Catalyst Grant winners have developed important products and solutions within Digital Science itself.

Research integrity was the focus of the Digital Science Catalyst Grant round for 2024.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media contact

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

The post Digital Science announces Catalyst Grant winners, rewarding innovations to safeguard research integrity appeared first on Digital Science.

Board reaffirms company’s commitment to Open Principles and innovation

Thursday 30 January 2025

Digital Science, a technology company serving stakeholders across the research ecosystem, is pleased to announce the formation of an external Advisory Board, to assist the company in improving its engagement and alignment with the communities it supports.

The panel of six experienced leaders has been chosen to represent as much of the diversity of Digital Science’s complex stakeholder environment as possible.

“Bringing technological change to the research sector requires a responsible approach, given the importance of the work of the community that we serve. Our announcement of Open Principles was an important step in ensuring that we set a bar for this responsibility. Introducing our Advisory Board is a further next step in demonstrating our commitment to continually improving our approach,” says Digital Science CEO Dr Daniel Hook.

“Our Advisory Board comprises global experts who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience. Their role is to provide strategic guidance and challenge to help us continue our path of innovation and openness, ensuring we’re providing the most responsible and reliable innovations to the communities that invest their trust in us.”

The Advisory Board’s six members include leaders from diverse fields including: research funding, strategy and policy; academic research management; pharmaceutical research and drug discovery; publishing and digital transformation; philanthropic leadership; and cutting-edge technology development.

The Digital Science Advisory Board members are:

• Jackie Hunter, Board Chair, Biocortex, Brainomix and the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst
• Chonnettia Jones, President and Executive Director, Addgene
• Linda O’Brien, Adjunct Professor, Griffith University, Australia and CEO of the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory
• Hemai Parthasarathy, formerly Head of Rapid Evaluation, Google X
• Benoit Schillings, Chief Technology Officer, Google X
• Joanne Sheppard, Advisor, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (Digital Science’s parent company)

The Advisory Board is to meet four times a year to discuss key issues facing the wider research ecosystem, providing insights and recommendations on a variety of topics crucial to the strategic growth and operational excellence of Digital Science.

Advisory Board member Jackie Hunter says, “Digital Science is a global leader in its support for all aspects of research, such as its innovative products that foster open and collaborative research. It is an exciting time to be joining the Digital Science journey as an Advisory Board member, and I commend the company for its vision in appointing such a board.”

For more information about Digital Science’s Advisory Board and its senior leadership – including pics and bios – visit the Digital Science website: https://www.digital-science.com/management-and-advisory/

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media contact

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

The post Digital Science announces external Advisory Board appeared first on Digital Science.

Thursday 16 January 2025 – Berlin, Germany and London, UK

Digital Science is pleased to announce that Dr Raym Crow, a leading figure in mission-driven, sustainable open publishing models, has won the 2025 APE Award for Innovation in Scholarly Communication.

The award – a joint initiative between Digital Science and the Berlin Institute for Scholarly Publishing (BISP) – has been announced at the 20th Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) Conference in Berlin, Germany.

The APE award is presented to an individual who has brought innovation in scholarly communication to the community, through infrastructure, technology, business models, output on the topic, theory, or practice.

With more than 30 years’ experience in academic and scholarly publishing, Dr Crow has been described as the “intellectual godfather” of mission-driven, equitable, and sustainable open publishing models.

Based in Virginia, USA, Dr Crow is a senior consultant at SPARC and managing partner of Chain Bridge Group, which provides sustainability planning, open-access business models, and strategic publishing guidance to academic and other nonprofit organizations.

His influential portfolio of open models includes: Subscribe to Open (S2O) with Annual Reviews in 2019, Community Action Publishing (CAP) with PLOS in 2020, and Direct to Open (D2O) with MIT Press in 2021.

Speaking to the Berlin awards ceremony via a recorded message from the United States, Dr Crow said he was honored to receive the award.

“I’ve been very fortunate to partner with a number of progressive society and nonprofit publishers in implementing new open models. And, in truth, it’s those mission-driven publishers who deserve recognition for their willingness to experiment and adapt and accept risk as they seek to better align their business models with their missions. So please allow me to share this honor with them,” he said.

The winner receives prize money of €1,000 plus expenses towards attending an APE conference. This is the third year the award has been presented at the APE conference.

Digital Science CEO Dr Daniel Hook said: “The Academic Publishing in Europe Award celebrates the achievements of individuals, including those who have a history of innovative contributions over a long timescale, rather than only focusing on those who have recently and briefly been innovative. The judges acknowledged Raym Crow’s wealth of experience and his significant impact on the sustainability and growth of open scholarly publishing.

“The judges were impressed by Raym’s expertise in strategic business planning and open publishing models, which have been instrumental to the success of open access journals, monographs, digital humanities projects, and much more. He is a worthy recipient of this award and we thank him for his service to innovation in scholarly publishing.”

Also among the judging panel was Dr Liz Allen, Associate Director, Research Consulting, who said: “Raym is a very deserving winner of the prize! He has been at the forefront of experimentation and innovation in scholarly publishing over several decades and has been especially influential in helping organizations to navigate the challenges in their transition to open access publishing.”

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media contact

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

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2024 Rankings Showcase Acceleration of R&D Pursuits: Waste Mitigation Inventions Flourished Last Year. Creating Non-Traditional Protein and Manipulating RNA Viruses Also Appear on the Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies, According to Annual Patent Study by IFI CLAIMS

Tuesday 14 January 2025

New Haven, Conn., Jan. 14, 2025—After four years of decline, U.S. patent grants headed upward, rising 3.8 percent from calendar year 2023 to 324,043 and Samsung retained the top spot for the third year in a row, according to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, the world’s most trusted patent data source.

IFI CLAIMS Patent Services is a Digital Science company that compiles and tracks data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and other patent-issuing agencies around the globe. IFI translates its world-leading data into an annual U.S. Top 50 and Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies patent ranking, providing valuable insights into companies’ R&D activity.

In addition to grants being up, U.S. patent applications were at an all-time high, up 3 percent from 418,111 in 2023 to 430,625 in 2024, an indicator the overall U.S. innovation economy is stronger than ever.

This year, contract chip maker TSMC stepped into second place, ahead of Qualcomm, which moved down to third—according to IFI’s 2024 U.S. Top 50 Ranking. Apple and Huawei rounded out the top five, all ahead of IBM, which slipped to eighth place. IBM previously held the top spot for 29 consecutive years, but the company adopted a more selective patenting strategy and was unseated by Samsung two years ago.

“It’s good to see patent grants heading in the right direction again,” said Ronald Kratz, CEO of IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. “Grants had been sinking since the start of the pandemic, likely because of the backlog of unexamined patents piling up. The USPTO has been hiring more examiners to deal with the accumulation, so it looks like that’s having a positive effect.” The USPTO backlog grew to 813,000 unexamined applications in 2024, up from 750,000 in 2023. Before COVID, the buildup was 540,000.

Summing up the U.S. Top 50 rankings

Samsung stayed on top and managed to grow its patent count year over year, from 6,165 in 2023 to 6,377 in 2024, a rise of 3 percent. In fact, of all patents granted in the U.S. last year, Samsung took nearly 2 percent of the pie. TSMC climbed a rung in the ranking, bringing in 3,989 patents compared to 3,687 in 2023, an improvement of 8 percent. Qualcomm, last year’s previous second place finisher, slipped a notch this year with an 11 percent decline in grants from 3,854 to 3,422. Apple scaled three places, landing in fourth this year. Google also climbed three spots to tenth place. Meanwhile, the much-followed patent stalwart IBM ticked down another four spots in 2024 but remains in the top 10.

The biggest gainers on the Top 50 all hail from Asia: Changxin Memory Technologies (+57 places), Tencent (+54), and LG Energy (+37). As for the so-called Magnificent Seven, the tech companies Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, and Tesla, which continued their magnificent stock run in 2024, only the first four had enough patents to make the Top 50 and the latter three were conspicuously absent.

U.S. companies granted fewer patents

Although American companies won the highest number of patents (143,382), the majority of U.S. patents (56 percent) were earned by firms outside of the U.S.: Japanese companies were awarded 43,364 patents, placing the country in second place, followed by China (28,258), South Korea (24,115), and Germany (14,044). Of the top 10 countries in patents granted, eight saw their numbers tick up. China, by far, rose the most: 32 percent more than 2023; Switzerland saw the second highest surge in growth, up 21 percent. Only the U.S. and Taiwan dropped, by 4 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Fastest Growing Technologies don’t go to waste

IFI’s Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies ranking is based on patent applications—a better proxy than grants for technologies that are currently progressing because the lag time is significantly shorter.

The fastest growing technology in 2024 is operating or servicing cells, which rose more than 27 percent from 2020-2024, a technology that is related to electrolytic methods. This is the first year this technology has appeared on the list. But the most remarkable aspect of this year’s ranking is that three of the Top 10 are taken up by technologies that seek to diminish waste: reclaiming non-ferrous metals (CAGR 26.2 percent), recovery of waste materials (CAGR 26.1 percent), and destroying solid waste (CAGR 17.7 percent). Clearly, companies inventing in these areas believe there are future profits to be had for innovations that make the world more sustainable. Another technology along the theme of sustainability that is growing quickly: working up protein from non-traditional sources (CAGR: 22.6 percent), a necessity as the global population grows.

“Despite all the market’s attention on AI, we saw technologies like machine learning, which underpins artificial intelligence, slope downward,” said Kratz. “But we’re not surprised by that. Those were the fast growers that preceded the present AI bonanza and have been on our list in the years leading up to it. That’s why investors should be paying attention to growing patent classes. It helps them get ahead of the curve.”

To view the report, visit the 2024 Top 10 Fastest Growing Technologies.

Patent activity provides valuable insight into companies’ R&D activity for researchers, analysts, and investors. It speaks to productivity, technological efficiency and IP strategy, and frequently reveals technology trends and the competitive landscape within various industries. Often the true value of a company lies with its intellectual properties, so examining patent assets is a key tool in gauging the intangible assets of publicly traded companies.

To create your own analysis, visit the IFI CLAIMS Live 1000, a free tool which uses data from the top 1000 companies that received patents across multiple countries and patent jurisdictions. The tool shows live data and offers interactive features that allow users to create and sort their own lists using a variety of filters.

About IFI CLAIMS Patent Services

IFI CLAIMS Patent Services uses proprietary data architecture to produce the industry’s most accurate patent database. The CLAIMS Direct platform allows for the easy integration of applications, other data sets, and analysis software. Headquartered in New Haven, Conn., with a satellite office in Barcelona, Spain, IFI CLAIMS is part of Digital Science, a digital research technology company based in London. For more information, visit www.ificlaims.com and follow IFI on LinkedIn.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media Contacts

For media inquiries and interviews, please contact Lily Iacurci, Marketing Manager, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services: lily.iacurci@ificlaims.com

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

The post Samsung takes top spot in U.S. patents for third year running while TSMC rises into second place; after four-year falloff, grants increase nearly 4% appeared first on Digital Science.

Research integrity champions say Forensic Scientometrics (FoSci) will decontaminate “polluted” science and scholarly literature

Wednesday 18 December 2024

Supporters of research integrity have signed a new declaration calling for data-driven forensics – known as Forensic Scientometrics (FoSci) – to lead the charge in detecting, exposing and even preventing fake science.

The Forensic Scientometrics (FoSci) Paris Declaration was drafted during an event in Paris last week organized and run by Digital Science’s VP of Research Integrity, Dr Leslie McIntosh. The event was hosted at Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) by Dr Guillaume Cabanac, research integrity “sleuth” and professor at the University of Toulouse, as part of his research chair titled “Decontamination of the scientific literature.”

The event involved researchers, experts, and professionals from around the world who are committed to upholding research integrity, many well-known sleuths among them. Attendees signed the declaration over the following weekend.

As the Declaration states, “Trustworthy science risks being obscured by a small but growing corpus of papers, people, organizations, and potentially governments polluting the integrity of research.”

And: “We care deeply about science, and we believe firmly in the ability of scientific study to decontaminate the scholarly literature. As a collective, we intend to do whatever we can to promote the consistency and reliability of scientific research output.”

“We want to dispel this pollution by flagging problematic papers, actors, and systems, mitigating the effects and disincentivizing such behavior in the future. Our goals are to prevent these errors from spreading, to promote better policies for scientific endeavours, and to safeguard the positive impact of science on society.”

FoSci is a forensic, data-driven initiative to uphold scientific integrity and public trust in science. It combines forensic investigation and scientometrics, which is the study of how research is shared and built upon. FoSci uncovers patterns that uphold or threaten the integrity of science itself.

The problems currently researched by forensic scientometricians include: author misrepresentation, data manipulation, fake conferences, image duplication, misconduct (including fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism), papermill operations, questionable research practices, sale of authorship and citations, sneaked references, stealth corrections, and tortured phrases.

The Declaration states that these problems have widespread and potentially damaging implications, through the citation of fraudulent research in patents, clinical guidelines, government policy, and more.

Dr McIntosh, one of the co-founders of the FoSci movement, said: “Forensic scientometrics is needed now more than ever. Scientific achievement is critical to our society’s health and wellbeing, to our economic and social prosperity, but we also live in a time when the community’s trust in science is constantly being eroded.

“What FoSci does is shine a light on questionable or deceitful practices in the world of science. Through collective action, we want to motivate those involved in producing and disseminating scientific research to produce consistent, valid, and high-quality work.”

Dr Cabanac said: “Our gathering of institutions, journalists, publishers, sleuths, and a leading scientometric data provider proved highly stimulating and productive. Meeting in person created a synergy that we, as a community, plan to sustain and put at the service of science.

“Unreliable bricks weaken the wall of knowledge that researchers have been building for centuries, one publication at a time. Collective action is required, both curative to prevent humans and AIs from learning from these, and preventive to design methods to stop new forms of misleading contents from entering the scientific record. This declaration is a call for action: join us.”

The FoSci Paris Declaration has made the following key commitments:

• Advocate for transformation
  • Open a dialogue with policymakers to design de-incentivizing strategies to tackle the mass production of problematic papers
  • Advocate for reform of institutions involved in scientific research based on the group’s findings
• Develop expertise and share knowledge
  • Facilitate training for researchers and professionals exploring these questions 
  • Share and provide research and data in the FoSci community
  • Establish a regular cycle of professional meetings
  • Improve the tools and methods of forensic scientometrics
• Improve the group’s ability to communicate its findings
  • Inform editorial boards, publishers, research institutions, governments and all relevant involved parties about the group’s work 
  • Participate in building software and tools to enable the reproducibility of their forensics findings
  • Establish points of contact between FoSci members and concerned organizations

The Paris event and its declaration are the culmination of a year of awareness-raising activities for Dr McIntosh, who has held workshops on FoSci in Athens, Los Angeles, Darwin and Sydney throughout 2024.

The signatories to the Paris Declaration hope that FoSci will become internationally recognized and taught at research institutions, particularly within research administration teams, but also among the academic community.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Scismic, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media contact

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

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Altmetric now tracks research influence across Bluesky’s 23+ million – and growing – social media accounts

Tuesday 3 December 2024

Digital Science is excited to announce that Altmetric, which gauges the online attention of research, has added the social media platform Bluesky as a new attention source for published research.

This major development sees Altmetric become the first to systematically track the impact of conversations about research on Bluesky, which has reached more than 23 million users.

The new attention source is reflected in the distinctive Altmetric Badges – appearing as a sky blue color – as well as in Altmetric Attention Scores, and will appear in further detail in Altmetric Explorer.

By adding Bluesky as an attention source, Altmetric will provide:

• Increased diversity of social media tracking
• Reliability and continuity in data
• Broader insights and analysis
• Transparent attention scoring
• Social media analytics to drive strategic decisions

Altmetric tracks Bluesky attention in real-time, detecting posts, reposts and quotes that contain a direct link to a scholarly output.

As of today, Altmetric has tracked 395,000 mentions of published research on Bluesky.

Amye Kenall, Vice President of Product, Data & Analytics Hub, Digital Science, said: “Bluesky has become a favored social media channel for research communications professionals and academics. Indeed, in our own research we found over 22% of researchers were using Bluesky over any other social media channel. We believe its importance to the global research conversation will strengthen even further over the coming years.

“Adding Bluesky to Altmetric unlocks a fresh, more comprehensive view of research conversations, which will help provide key insights into the attention research is receiving.

“With Altmetric, we’re empowering research communities to understand the real-world influence of their work. The inclusion of Bluesky supports our users’ need for transparent and comprehensive research engagement in today’s evolving social media landscape.”

Emily Liu, Bluesky Growth & Partnerships, said: “Scientists and researchers have been a core part of the Bluesky community since the very beginning, and we want to make this a great network for them. We’re excited that with Altmetric, it’s now easier to track conversations happening around their research.”

About Altmetric

Altmetric is a leading provider of alternative research metrics, helping everyone involved in research gauge the impact of their work. We serve diverse markets including universities, institutions, government, publishers, corporations, and those who fund research. Our powerful technology searches thousands of online sources, revealing where research is being shared and discussed. Teams can use our powerful Altmetric Explorer application to interrogate the data themselves, embed our dynamic ‘badges’ into their webpages, or get expert insights from Altmetric’s consultants. Altmetric is part of the Digital Science group, dedicated to making the research experience simpler and more productive by applying pioneering technology solutions. Find out more at altmetric.com and follow @altmetric on X and @altmetric.com on Bluesky.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Scismic, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

Media contacts

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

Emily Liu, Bluesky: press@blueskyweb.xyz

The post Altmetric adds Bluesky social media as a research attention source appeared first on Digital Science.

Monday 2 December 2024

Sage has taken a significant step in advancing research integrity by adopting Dimensions Author Check, an application from Digital Science that reviews researchers’ publication histories and networks to check for research integrity issues. This tool will help spot patterns in unethical scholarly behavior and is part of Sage’s ongoing effort to prevent low-quality research from being published and to preserve the integrity of the academic record.

Author Check works by using an extensive dataset to flag unusual activities that may require further investigation, such as indicators of paper mill involvement. It streamlines the historically labor-intensive and time-consuming author verification process, creating a more comprehensive view of an author’s research history.

“As an independent company, we have the freedom to think long-term and invest in meaningful solutions to address the pressing challenges in research integrity,” said Dr Adya Misra, Associate Director of Research Integrity at Sage. “With Author Check, we’ll be able to better channel our efforts alongside fair and rigorous investigation processes. I’m excited to use this tool and to be working with Digital Science to uphold trust in research.”

“Sage is harnessing cutting-edge technology developed by Digital Science, inspired by our innovative vision, to enhance the integrity of academic publishing by verifying authorship on research papers. This collaboration underscores our commitment to empowering publishers with tools that uphold trust and transparency in scholarly communication,” said Dr Leslie McIntosh, Vice President of Research Integrity at Digital Science. “Personally, seeing Dimensions Author Check evolve from an idea into a practical solution is thrilling. It’s incredibly rewarding to know that a respected company like Sage values the insight Author Check provides and will use it to strengthen trust in research.”

Sage is committed to publishing scholarship that is robust, accurate, and inclusive, reflecting the highest standards of research integrity. Read more about Sage’s efforts to support research integrity.

About Dimensions

Part of Digital Science, Dimensions hosts the largest collection of interconnected global research data, re-imagining research discovery with access to grants, publications, clinical trials, patents and policy documents all in one place. dimensions.ai. Follow @DSDimensions on X and LinkedIn.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Scismic, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

About Sage

Sage is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and library resources with a growing range of technologies to enable discovery, access, and engagement. Believing that research and education are critical in shaping society, 24-year-old Sara Miller McCune founded Sage in 1965. Today, we are controlled by a group of trustees charged with maintaining our independence and mission indefinitely.  

Our guaranteed independence means we’re free to: 

• Do more – supporting an equitable academic future, furthering disciplines that drive social change, and helping social and behavioral science make an impact 
• Work together – building lasting relationships, championing diverse perspectives, and co-creating resources to transform teaching and learning 
• Think long-term – experimenting, taking risks, and investing in new ideas 

This press release was originally published at the Sage website here.

The post Sage first to adopt Dimensions Author Check, a new research integrity tool from Digital Science appeared first on Digital Science.

Latest report in the State of Open Data series, released by partners Digital Science, Figshare and Springer Nature, provides quantitative analysis on growth of open data sharing globally

Monday 2 December 2024

New analysis suggests that open data practice is now on the edge of becoming a standard, recognized and supported scholarly output, globally.

As part of the latest in the State of Open Data series, produced by partners Digital Science, Figshare and Springer Nature, direct author-sharing practices have been analyzed from a funder, country and institutional level. The resulting data shows key trends driving successful open sharing and the growth of global adoption, while also enabling recommendations to be drawn to help bridge the remaining gaps between policy and practice.

The findings have been published in The State of Open Data 2024 special report: Bridging policy and practice in data sharing.

Report co-author Mark Hahnel, VP of Open Research at Digital Science and Founder of Figshare, said:

“Open research is now officially an inevitability. If we look at open research in general and closed vs open publishing, there is now more open publishing than closed. We’re now in a place where we consistently see around 2 million datasets being published every year; this is the same amount of articles that we saw published annually in the year 2000. This report provides a valuable insight into what is really driving this data sharing and enables us, as a community, to see what is working and what we need to do more of to both sustain these figures and increase them.”

Key findings from the report show that: 

• More universities now have data sharing policies as part of their efforts to promote open science and research transparency.

There has been a strong growth in papers linking to data from universities globally since 2010. Although there are differences regionally, with a spread of just 5-10% in data sharing policies, this is less significant than the  number of articles (>85%) that were previously not linked to data.

• The success of open data initiatives reflects a broader policy environment. However, having policies in place is not sufficient on its own.

Policies for open data sharing are now more consistent globally, which has contributed to a general decline in “on request” sharing with reductions ranging from 1-9% in all but one country – i.e. researchers are now sharing more ‘naturally’. However, there are fluctuations in practice based on the type of research being funded and geolocation, and even where policies are in place, there is not necessarily a  significant rise in repository sharing. 

• Global uptake of open research practice has increased, but is impacted by country-level motivations for data sharing.

The United States has the lowest percentage of researchers that are motivated through citation of their data (4.88%) while having the highest percentage being motivated by funder requirement (10.23%). Conversely, Ethiopia and Japan show similarity with a higher importance of motivation through citation of their data (9.3% and 14.8% respectively) and a similar low importance of motivation from funder requirement (at 2.33% and 1.67% respectively).

• Resource disparities remain.

Progress in some countries is hindered by limitations in internet connectivity, institutional support, and a lack of awareness. Across the 10 regions analyzed*, the US, UK, Germany, and France demonstrated similar trends in repository sharing, averaging around a 25% sharing rate. However, for Brazil, Ethiopia and India the sharing rate remains significantly below a quarter. 

• Sustained efforts are needed to respond to the challenges in diverse research areas.

A wide range of disciplines are now being covered by the growing number of data availability statement (DAS) policies, but many still lack established community practices, suitable repositories, and/or the ability to handle sensitive data which is difficult to share. 

Report co-author Graham Smith, Open Data Programme Manager, Springer Nature said: 

“Our aim with this report is to help open up the conversations we need to have around open data and research practices. Providing global data that helps to recognise and address the disparities in practice, we can identify as a sector the targeted and practical next steps needed to further accelerate the global adoption of open data practices. In doing so, we can foster a more equitable and accessible research ecosystem, where data sharing is valued, rewarded, and ultimately becomes a cornerstone of academic success – key if we are to move to a fully open science future.”

This year’s focused report combines three different data sources: Dimensions, Springer Nature Data Availability Statements, and the Make Data Count and DataCite Data Citation Corpus, to look at the linkages between peer-reviewed published research and data sets being made available. The combination of these sources has enabled patterns to be analysed around how researchers are making their data open, to what standard, and better understand the real motivations for data sharing, to help inform how we as a community can effect positive change.  

Alongside the analysis of researcher actions, the report also suggests four ways in which to continue to drive progress forwards: consistent introduction of a four-step process of change (policy, mandate compliance and measurement); enhanced collaboration for equitable access to knowledge; an increase in training and identification of the regions that need more targeted support; and greater acknowledgement, by all, of the nuances by discipline. 

The results of this year’s analysis will be discussed in a webinar on 23 January 2025. Register for the webinar here and join the conversation at #StateOfOpenData.

All data and analysis can be accessed in the report hosted on Figshare here: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27337476

*The 10 countries included in the country-level analysis were: Botswana, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

About Figshare

Figshare, a Digital Science Solution, is a provider of institutional repository infrastructure. Our solutions help institutions share, showcase and manage their research outputs in a discoverable, citable, reportable and transparent way. We support institutions in meeting the growing demands for research to become open, freer, FAIRer and more connected. We provide the flexibility and control for you to create research management workflows that work for you. We take care of implementation, updates, security and maintenance – ensuring you and your researchers can always depend on your repository, leaving you to focus on what really matters; research and its impact on the world.

About Digital Science

Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, funders, industry and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, OntoChem, Overleaf, ReadCube, Scismic, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

About Springer Nature

At Springer Nature, we are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world. Every day our books, journals, platforms, and technology solutions reach millions of people; helping researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. Through our leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, and our steadfast commitment to the most rigorous standards, we help accelerate solutions to the world’s urgent challenges and inspire generations to come. For more information, please visit about.springernature.com and @SpringerNature.

Media contacts

David Ellis, Press, PR & Social Manager, Digital Science: Mobile +61 447 783 023, d.ellis@digital-science.com

Laura Day, Marketing Director, Figshare: laura@figshare.com

Theodore HibbertGreaves, Communications Officer, Springer Nature: theodore.hibbertgreaves@springernature.com

The post New report suggests open data on edge of becoming a recognized global standard for scholarly output appeared first on Digital Science.