On 28 October, the PRC Alliance was launched, an initiative to promote the Publish, Review, Curate (PRC) model. The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) is one of the more than 40 founding members of the alliance.
The scholarly publishing system is under pressure. Many researchers face strong demands to publish, peer review is strained and often invisible, and recognition for scholarly contributions beyond traditional articles remains limited. Moreover, with the rapid growth in the use of AI and growing concerns about research integrity, it is increasingly challenging to determine which research outputs can and cannot be trusted.
To address these issues, a coalition of over 40 research funders, universities, publishers, platforms and infrastructure service providers have come together to promote a new vision for scholarly communication based on the Publish, Review, Curate (PRC) model. Members will work together in the PRC Alliance, launched today in an online event. CWTS has joined the alliance as a founding member.
CWTS is deeply engaged in multiple PRC-related projects and has played a leading role in establishing the PRC Alliance. Ludo Waltman, Scientific Director of CWTS and one of the driving forces behind the alliance, says: 'At CWTS we are proud to play a leading role in the PRC developments in the Netherlands, in particular through an ambitious PRC infrastructure project. For us the PRC Alliance offers an exciting opportunity to connect the national and international conversations about PRC.'
Earlier this year, the new CWTS scholarly communication policy was published. In this policy, the institute commits itself to working towards more open, community-governed forms of publishing. Joining the PRC Alliance is a logical step in that direction. Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner, Director of Research and Education at CWTS, says: 'We see the PRC Alliance as a promising opportunity to pursue this ambition together with others and build the collective academic agency necessary to create a scholarly communication system that best serves science and society.'
Several CWTS colleagues are also involved in MetaROR, a PRC platform evaluating research in the metascience field, which was established as a collaboration between RoRI and AIMOS.
What is PRC, or Publish, Review, Curate?
Traditionally, research outputs are first peer reviewed and curated before they are published. PRC reverses this order: research outputs are first published prior to any subsequent open review and/or curation. Publishing prior to review means that research findings are made available more quickly - the benefits of which were made clear by the COVID pandemic. Adding open peer review and editorial curation to timely publishing means that readers also gain greater insight into the robustness of research findings, helping to strengthen trust in both the research and the institutions that produce it.
The PRC Alliance aims to increase the visibility and status of the PRC model, facilitate greater coordination across the diverse PRC community, and explore ways in which like-minded organisations can work together to collaboratively support innovative PRC initiatives. It is a joint initiative of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and ASAPbio, a nonprofit organisation that promotes open science publishing. In the first year of its operation the PRC Alliance will be hosted by COAR as part of the COAR Notify Project.
