A foundation for change: eLife reports on progress in 2013

In 2013, eLife made clear its intentions to address some of the critical issues facing science today. In a year that saw Editor-in-chief Randy Schekman share the Nobel Prize, eLife made significant progress in a number of areas:

Introducing eLife Lens, an innovative article-viewing platform

Challenging the incentive system, as co-author of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and via Randy Schekman’s call for scientists to end their dependency on high-profile journals and the Impact Factor

Transforming peer review, resulting in a mean time from submission to acceptance of around 90 days, and delivering clear and constructive feedback to authors

Publishing great science: eLife published some of the most promising advances in biomedical and life sciences in 2013 – from the development of pioneering methods for editing the human genome by Jinek et al. to Scialdone et al.’s discovery that plants can ‘do maths’.

2013 was an important stepping stone in eLife's journey to transform the way scientists communicate their research. Looking ahead, in his letter as Chair of the eLife Sciences Board of Directors, Toby Coppel, stated "eLife plans to go beyond the publication of static research articles and aims to become a dynamic platform to allow scientists to build their research stories online..."

2013 was an important stepping-stone in eLife’s journey to transform the way scientists communicate their research. Looking ahead, in his letter as Chair of the eLife Sciences Board of Directors, Toby Coppel stated “eLife plans to go beyond the publication of static research articles and aims to become a dynamic platform to allow scientists to build their research stories online, to promote reproducibility in science, and to recognise the kinds of behaviours that will accelerate scientific discovery.”    He adds, “What gives us the greatest sense of optimism about the prospect for achieving this transformation is the intense appetite for change from early-career researchers. These scientists represent the future and we are focused on serving them well.“   The eLife 2013 Annual Report is available to read now at http://2013.elifesciences.org   *******   Media contact
Jenny Mitchell j.mitchell@elifesciences.org +44 (0)1223 855 373

 _____________________________________________________