Intro to Sciety: The Concept

In this series of blog posts we will explore the development of the application, what it can do for you, and how to get started. This is the first post in the Intro to Sciety series, where we explore the development of the application. Post 2, Post 3.

Sciety is a tool for helping people, particularly those affiliated with the biomedical and life sciences, navigate the growing preprint landscape.

The number of preprints covering the biomedical and life sciences sectors has been on the rise, and surpassed expectations in the last year. This shifting tide is an incredible achievement in itself, empowering more authors to make their work accessible to all on their own terms. However, the powerful new flow of information has made it increasingly difficult for other researchers to keep up with the latest results, decide what to trust and where to invest their precious reading time.

Many excellent initiatives have since stepped up to the plate, donating their expertise to evaluate preprints. This provides crucial trust indicators to help their other researchers follow the very latest developments in their field, many months before they may have been otherwise available for consumption in a journal. These contributions often go unrecognised due to their broad distribution, making it difficult to achieve the initial goal: keeping the community informed. This is where Sciety comes in.

Sciety aggregates the output of these diverse evaluation efforts, providing easy access for anyone. At this initial stage, Sciety is focused on the biomedical and life sciences, but as the network grows, we hope to support other branches of science to increase our positive impact. By removing barriers to technology, we hope to inspire the next generation of scholars, thereby building trust in the early publication of scientific works.

Our vision is for Sciety to become the transparent home of curated opinions on preprints, providing support for authors, readers and reviewers alike.

In the next post, we will discuss HOW Sciety works in more detail.