New application addresses scientific replication crisis

~ DeSci Labs launches open source peer-to-peer application for scientific publishing ~

To help address the replication crisis, fix broken incentives in science, and help researchers get the recognition they deserve, DeSci Labs has launched DeSci Publish. Researchers can use this open source peer-to-peer application in two ways: to continually upload data, code, and other artefacts throughout the research process, and to prepare submission packages for journals or preprint platforms. Both create a clear track record that helps referees, editors, and other members of the scientific community understand how authors reached their results — enhancing reproducibility.

On Publish, each file is automatically assigned a machine-actionable persistent identifier (dPID), resistant to link rot and content drift — all data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). This helps researchers fulfil funding requirements for data and code sharing and can increase citations.

The application has in-built mechanisms to help scientists get credit for their work. Authors can claim open data/open code badges, which are validated by other users Once validated, the ORCID profile of the authors will automatically update, giving them authorship credit for publishing a dataset or a piece of software.

The application features a CrossRef integration, enabling users to create digital object identifiers (DOIs) for any data, code, or manuscript they share on DeSci Publish and add them to the official scientific record. Soon, DeSci Publish will provide access to more than 50 million open access research articles and calculate novelty scores for each of them, including every version of every manuscript that authors post on the platform. This will allow users to explore the scientific literature from a novel perspective, and provide authors with an additional tool to improve their research and publication opportunities.

Based on Web3 technology, Publish has a stable tech stack based on open source technology that cannot be bought, and is independent of DeSci Labs as a business.

“By launching DeSci Publish, we’re upgrading the unit of knowledge from static manuscripts to versionable research objects and empowering researchers to work to open science principles with ease,” said Sina Iman, chief technology officer at DeSci Labs. “Publish is the first application with the infrastructure needed to create a fully traceable, digital version of the scientific record.”

“DeSci Publish provides a new model for persistent identifiers, which are automatically assigned to every file of every research object and derived from the content of the shared files themselves,” explained Christopher Hill, co-founder of DeSci Labs. “Users can easily update their work in Publish without overwriting earlier versions or breaking any links to the code or data. Nothing gets lost anymore, and shared data or code resources can be easily imported into local compute environments with one single click.”

Publish can also help journal editors and referees, while improving the publication chances of the authors After receiving a submission package, editors and referees can immediately access the data and code associated with the submitted manuscript and examine the version history of the research project, allowing them to better understand how the authors arrived at their results and claims. This transparency is not only best open-science practice, it also highly valued by editors, referees, and readers.

As a fully remote company with roots in Switzerland and the Netherlands, DeSci Labs has raised more than $6.5 million in seed funding and received a prestigious Horizon Infrastructure grant from the European Commission. Co-founder and CEO Professor Philipp Koellinger is published in leading journals such as Nature and Science, has more than 17,000 citations for his work in social science genetics, economics and neuroscience, and has worked as a full professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Meanwhile, Hill is a neuro-economist studying strategic behaviour in humans, and Iman previously led engineering teams at Palantir and Anthem and was a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Want to find out more about DeSci Publish and how you can share your data on the application? You can share up to 100 GB for free. Try it today: https://desci.com/researchers