Mastodawn

Matt Ferguson Nov 20, 2022

An #introduction to eLife's new Mastodon page!

We're an #OpenAccess not-for-profit journal that publishes and reviews #research in the life and biomedical sciences.

We want to improve the way research is practised and shared in part by working with early-career researchers #ECR and supporting #OpenSource technology.

We also just announced our new publishing model that we hope will tackle an overreliance on journal titles and publishing decisions as quality measures for science and scientists.

@AllenNeuroLab Nov 9, 2022

@eLife @eLife I share your goals to improve scientific publishing! Can you please respond to these simple suggestions: (1) democratize the editors through elections and impose term limits, and (2) make triage decisions public allowing the community to scrutinize the process. Thanks!

eLife Nov 9, 2022

@AllenNeuroLab Hi, thanks for the interest, we appreciate these suggestions. These aren't things we're planning to implement right now but community feedback like this is helping us work out the directions we want to take.

We've been working to diversify our Editorial boards and are planning an open call for Reviewing Editors in 2023. Reviewing Editors currently join with a one-year renewable term and every four years it's discussed whether or not they'll continue.

eLife Nov 9, 2022

@AllenNeuroLab We’ve also received many suggestions about the papers we select for review and we will explore ways to make the process more transparent over time. For example, we would like to maintain a public list of preprints that are under review.

@AllenNeuroLab Nov 10, 2022

@eLife thanks for your reply. Triage is the real issue in scientific publishing, not reviews. Decisions are made in the way you describe in proverbial back rooms about scientific worthiness of a paper for review without public scrutiny but with public dollars. Journals need to publish info on the submission, substantive reason for triage, and who made the decision. Without this scientific review transparency has not been achieved.

@AllenNeuroLab Nov 10, 2022

@eLife Specific to your last point, you need a list of all requests/submissions not just those that were selected for review. How can the scientific community scrutinize the selection process knowing only the positive outcomes? Thanks!

@AllenNeuroLab Nov 11, 2022

@eLife Thoughts on this? How does the scientific community and scientific funders know triage is being done in a fair and unbiased way without providing public information on both the desk rejections and those sent out for review without having detailed information on both outcomes?

@AllenNeuroLab Nov 10, 2022

@eLife Diversity in the editorial board is good of course, but democracy is equally important. Will the selections be made by all current editors or a few people?

eLife Nov 10, 2022

@AllenNeuroLab Applications are reviewed by committees formed of representatives of eLife editors and members of our Early-Career Advisor Group as well as by eLife's Senior and Deputy Editors.

Arseny Khakhalin Nov 10, 2022

@eLife That's really nice of you to join! :)

Jocelyn Etienne Nov 9, 2022

Brilliant that @eLife is here! About the new publishing model, there's at least one thread already, https://mastodon.social/@AllenNeuroLab/109302451546531877

eLife Nov 9, 2022

@jocelyn_etienne Thanks for sharing. We're looking forward to seeing what the community over here has to say!

Peter Tennant, PhD Nov 10, 2022

@eLife Trust eLife to be leading the way yet again!

Jeffrey Vedanayagam Nov 11, 2022

Martin Prusinkiewicz Nov 23, 2022

@Andy_Tattersall Another journal account active on mastodon

@eLife @albertcardona I cant follow you… your server throws an error… 🤷‍♂️

Is this only me?!?

Albert Cardona Nov 26, 2022

@florianjug @eLife Is that for eLife or for me? Your profile shows you as following me. Whatever it is seems like a glitch—let’s hope it resolves soon.