ScienceOpen
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| ScienceOpen | |
|---|---|
| Name | ScienceOpen |
| Type | Company |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Headquarters | Berlin |
| Products | Research networking, discovery platform, open peer review |
ScienceOpen is an international research discovery and networking platform that aggregates scholarly metadata, enhances article-level metrics, and offers post-publication peer review and curation services. It connects researchers, publishers, institutions, and funders through searchable records, author profiles, and collaborative collections. The platform emphasizes open access, metadata enrichment, and interoperable tools to support scholarly communication.
History
ScienceOpen was founded in 2013 by Alexander Grossmann (publisher) and Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe as part of a wave of digital initiatives following developments such as the Public Library of Science, the rise of arXiv, and policy shifts from organizations like the Wellcome Trust and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Early activity linked the company to integration efforts with bibliographic services including CrossRef, ORCID, and PubMed Central. Growth phases of the platform occurred alongside community efforts exemplified by OpenAIRE, the establishment of mandates like the Plan S framework, and technological partnerships with entities such as the Open Archives Initiative and the Directory of Open Access Journals. Key milestones included expansion of indexing coverage to match aggregators such as Scopus and Web of Science and involvement in events hosted by organizations like the Association of Research Libraries and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers.
Services and Features
The platform offers discovery services comparable to tools from Google Scholar, Dimensions, and Semantic Scholar, while providing author disambiguation tied to ORCID iDs and citation linking via CrossRef. It supports article-level metrics akin to initiatives by the Public Library of Science and the Altmetric service, integrating indicators used by funders such as the European Research Council and institutions like the Max Planck Society. Features include collections and thematic hubs similar to curation activities by ResearchGate and Mendeley, post-publication peer review workflows inspired by programs at the F1000Research platform and editorial models practiced at journals like eLife. The service enables filtering and faceted search parallel to interfaces from EBSCO Information Services and ProQuest, and supports integrations with repository networks such as Zenodo and institutional infrastructures run by universities like University of Cambridge and Harvard University.
Platform and Technology
ScienceOpen’s architecture emphasizes metadata aggregation, APIs, and interoperability with standards promoted by DataCite, Resource Description Framework, and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The technical stack has been discussed at venues including Open Repositories and implemented in ways comparable to tools used by Digital Science and Elsevier for indexing. It supports machine-readable metadata compatible with services such as Crossref Event Data and harvesting workflows similar to those used by Europe PMC and national aggregators like China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Security, scalability, and cloud deployment mirror practices from providers like Amazon Web Services and collaborations reported at conferences including ALPSP Annual Conference.
Business Model and Partnerships
The organization operates a mixed model combining free discovery services with paid offerings for publishers, societies, and institutions, echoing revenue strategies used by Springer Nature and Wiley. Partnerships and commercial relationships have involved collaborations with publishers like Frontiers (publisher), academic societies such as the American Chemical Society, and technology partners including ORCID and CrossRef. Institutional services have been marketed to libraries and consortia similar to procurement processes at the California Digital Library and the UK Research and Innovation framework. Grant-funded projects and collaborations have linked the platform with European initiatives such as Horizon 2020 and with infrastructure projects like OpenAIRE.
Reception and Impact
Scholars and librarians have compared the platform’s discovery and review features to systems developed at PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, noting its utility for metadata enrichment and collaborative curation. Endorsements and critiques have appeared in venues such as Nature (journal), Science (journal), and library publications from the Association of College and Research Libraries. The platform’s role in promoting open post-publication review has been highlighted in discussions with proponents from Faculty of 1000 and commentators associated with SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). Its indexing choices and metrics have been used in institutional reporting analogous to practices at the University of California system and in evaluations by funders like the Wellcome Trust.
Controversies and Criticisms
Criticism has focused on issues common to alternative publishing services, including concerns about metadata coverage relative to Web of Science and Scopus and debates over the robustness of post-publication peer review similar to controversies at PubPeer and ResearchGate. Questions have been raised in editorial commentary from outlets such as The Lancet and community forums associated with Retraction Watch regarding moderation, quality control, and potential conflicts of interest in paid partnerships with publishers and societies, echoing wider debates that implicated organizations like Elsevier and Wiley-Blackwell. Responses from proponents have referenced transparency standards promoted by Committee on Publication Ethics and infrastructure guidelines from CODATA.