Website for new open-access journal eLife introduced

eLife reveals a fresh approach to presenting and navigating scientific content

December 13, 2012

In June 2011, three leading research funders came together in a unique collaboration to inspire change in the communication of scientific discoveries. The first product of this partnership is eLife – an open-access journal for the most influential research in life science and biomedicine. After much anticipation surrounding the announcement of the project and subsequent developments including the release of articles ahead of the site launch, the eLife journal website was introduced.

The eLife journal (http://elife.elifesciences.org) invites visitors to explore key advances across life science and biomedicine, read comments and commentary by experts and colleagues, and get a sense of the quality of work that eLife is publishing. Nineteen research papers have now been selected for publication by eLife’s academic editors. “eLife editors have successfully established a high bar for the journal,” said Randy Schekman, Editor-in-chief. “We will continue to publish only those papers deemed highly influential or important. Authors who give us a try will be rewarded with a quick initial decision and – for those selected for full peer review – a constructive, decisive editorial process. Board members, referees, and authors are all embracing our novel approach.”

The new site is also a chance to explore how eLife plans to take advantage of digital media. Presentation of content is clean and distraction-free, allowing authors to present the results of their research in full and inviting readers to delve deeply into the work by exploring figures and their supplements, watching videos, reading editor decision letters and author responses, downloading data sets, viewing article-level metrics, and more. All of this is a starting point, as eLife will continue to solicit feedback from the community in making the presentation as accessible and usable as possible.

“Now is a great time for scientists to come and take a look at eLife, see what they think of the science, and what they think of the way the science is being presented,” added Schekman. “We invite our colleagues to consider eLife as a venue for the publication of their most important work. Althought our selection process is quite stringent, we can promise a speedy review for all and a quite unique experience for the authors of papers we accept for publication."

About eLife

eLife is a unique collaboration between the funders and practitioners of research to communicate ground-breaking discoveries in the life and biomedical sciences in the most effective way. The eLife journal is a platform for maximising the reach and influence of new discoveries and showcasing new approaches to the presentation, use, and assessment of research. As an open-access journal, eLife delivers access to content for free, online, immediately on publication, and will encourage maximum possible reach and utility of the content by publishing under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which is emerging as the gold standard for open-access publishing. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust. Learn more at elifesciences.org.

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