Recent developments in scholarly publishing to improve research practices in the life sciences

In some ways, scholarly publishing has not changed much in the last ten years. Publishing in prestigious top-tier journals is still perceived as critical for career progression (especially gaining promotion and grants). Likewise, journal metrics continue to dominate in the evaluation of a paper’s research, rather than the paper’s contents. Against the backdrop of highly competitive job and grant markets, factors such as these encourage narrow research agendas and tie researchers (particularly in early career) to placing work in exploitative publishers who draw significant funds from academic work. Further, standard publishing criteria, especially for instance on publishing statistically significant, positive results, creates biases across published studies. However, there are several reasons for optimism that the nature of scientific publishing will improve. Here we outline some recent developments that we believe will improve the working environment and career prospects for life scientists.