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eLife, in collaboration with the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation (Coko), has launched the first release of Libero Reviewer, an open-source application that will support the organisation’s unique editorial process from submission to acceptance.

This first release takes the form of a wizard that guides an author through submitting their work for initial assessment by eLife’s board of Senior Editors and integrates with the journal’s existing peer-review software, eJournalPress (eJPress). It follows the same mobile-first mentality that was incorporated into the design of eLife’s publishing platform Libero Publisher, making it easier to navigate the system while on the move.

The work follows the announcement from eLife and Coko in 2017 that they joined forces to build a user-driven, open-source solution for the submission and peer review of manuscripts, as part of a complete end-to-end workflow for publishing. The partnership formed after Coko’s work with University of California Press and soon led to a community, with organisations such as Hindawi Limited and Europe PMC committing their efforts to the project. The group works towards the common goal of improving how new research is captured and communicated.

eLife’s initial submission wizard now provides a user experience for scientists that is both intuitive and efficient. The application makes use of eLife’s open-source extraction tool ScienceBeam to lift the title directly from the uploaded manuscript file. Automated data extraction will be incorporated further into the full workflow, saving as much time for scientists as possible.

Each component is designed and coded with reusability in mind, meaning that everything eLife creates can theoretically be taken by any other organisation, either “out of the box” or adapted to meet their individual requirements.

Design work has already begun on the remainder of the editorial process, with additional releases planned for the next several months.

Hannah Drury, eLife Product Manager, says: “We’ve been able to deliver this slice of the application thanks to the modular nature of the PubSweet framework it’s been built on. We mirrored this approach in our own development to ensure that each component can realistically add value in its own right. The result is an experience we can deliver to real users before the end-to-end application is ready. Their feedback will be crucial as we develop the later stages of the project.”

Kristen Ratan, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Coko, adds: “We can see a world where modern, digital-first technologies will improve the entire scholarly communication landscape, and this launch brings us one step closer to achieving our vision. We’re looking forward to working with eLife on the remainder of the application, which will eventually support the other stages of the organisation’s editorial workflow through full submission, consultative peer review and final acceptance.”

To learn more about how Libero Reviewer is supporting eLife's mission, follow our open Product Roadmap at https://trello.com/b/NShRx4VE/libero-reviewer-product-roadmap.

To find out more about eLife’s partnership with Coko to deliver the first open-source journals submission and peer-review platform built using the Coko PubSweet framework, see https://elifesciences.org/for-the-press/67d013c4/elife-and-collaborative-knowledge-foundation-partner-to-deliver-open-source-submission-and-peer-review-platform.

For more information about the other platforms that are built on top of PubSweet, visit https://coko.foundation/all-the-platforms.

And for the latest updates on Libero Reviewer and other news from eLife, sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter. You can also follow @eLife on Twitter.

Media contacts Emily Packer

eLife

e.packer@elifesciences.org

+441223855373