For Immediate Release
June 20, 2016
For more information, contact:
Heather Joseph
(202) 296-2296
[email protected]
Washington, DC – Daniel Mietchen began exploring the concept of a journal devoted exclusively to grant proposals – unexecuted or not – about five years ago. “A public proposal can serve as a call for funders, thereby complementing the traditional way of matching research ideas with funding,” he says. “It can also trigger feedback from and interactions with potential collaborators, future colleagues, students, journalists and others.”
He talked with funders and publishers at conferences who thought it could be useful, but no one wanted to be the first – until he discussed it with Lyubomir Penev. The managing director and founder of the Bulgaria-based Pensoft Publishers thought the idea was brilliant.
As the planning began, they quickly started to think more broadly: Why not include outputs from entire research cycles? It became clear that it made the most sense to try and publish the full narrative about the research.
For promoting and expanding transparency in scientific communication, SPARC is pleased to honor the RIO Journal with its June 2016 Innovator Award. The full SPARC Innovator profile can be found here.
The SPARC Innovator program recognizes advances in open access, open education and open data propelled by an individual, institution, or group. Typically, these advances exemplify SPARC’s principles by challenging the status quo for the benefit of researchers, libraries, universities, and the public. SPARC Innovators are featured on the SPARC website semi-annually and have included David Wiley, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Open Access Button, Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL), John Willinsky, the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), among others.
For further information or a list of previous SPARC Innovators, please see the SPARC website.
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SPARC is a global coalition committed to making open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education.
