eLife Receives £2.4m ($3.17m/USD) Grant From Wellcome to Build Open Publishing Ecosystem

From an eLife Post:

eLife is pleased to announce funding from Wellcome which will support a new initiative, called eLife Pathways, in building an open and collaborative ecosystem for alternative approaches to scholarly communication.

A founding funder and long-term supporter of eLife, Wellcome has awarded the non-profit a grant of £2.4m, including cover for indirect costs, for the next three years. This significant new investment affirms eLife’s success to date in building open-source publishing technologies and will help the organisation extend them to the wider community. Another private donor has also pledged funding to eLife which will contribute towards matching the Wellcome grant.

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Despite calls for more openness in research communication, alternatives to traditional journals and publishing models remain scarce, stifling efforts to reform the system. A significant part of this problem is the lack of coordination among scholarly open-source technology providers, which prevents the development of robust, foundational infrastructure that benefits the community.

To address this challenge, the new eLife Pathways initiative will help build an open publishing ecosystem for all. This work will cover three goals: to enhance eLife’s existing technology so that it serves the community; to co-develop an open-source tool that will have significant community impact; and to provide technology that supports critical community projects, ensuring their adoption and contribution to the ecosystem.

Representing the first collaboration in this project, eLife Pathways’ second goal will be delivered in partnership with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). The organisations will develop a free tool so that any open-access journal can produce high-quality JATS XML – the industry standard for structuring and sharing research articles. As many journals, including a large proportion in the Global South, are unable to meet JATS XML standards due to the lack of simple and affordable tools, they face challenges in being indexed and made discoverable to readers. eLife Pathways therefore aims to break down this barrier to equity in publishing.

Paul Shannon, eLife Head of Technology and Innovation, says: “eLife Pathways will build on work that is currently supported by grants from COAR Notify and the NLnet Foundation, which together show the open science community’s belief in what we’re doing. Through our new and existing collaborations, we look forward to creating a world where innovation thrives, and where research is assessed responsibly and shared equitably.”

Learn More, Read the Complete Announcement

Filed under: Funding, News, Open Access, Publishing