Want to Make Science Work Better? Let’s Talk About How.
Join us on Monday, June 29th at 8:00 AM PDT / 11:00 AM EDT / 4:00 PM GMT / 5:00 PM CEST.
In April, an Action Collaborative that emerged from the NASEM Roundtable for Aligning Incentives for Open Scholarship hosted its first in-person meeting at the HHMI Headquarters in Chevy Chase. The Action Collaborative focuses on designing a new research communication paradigm that rethinks how research outputs are shared, versioned, reviewed, verified, and synthesised. The group has been meeting monthly since August of 2025 and has accelerated progress during the in-person event. A result of that acceleration is a reshaping of the Action Collaborative to knit together work across many other groups and efforts, and to weave a larger message and roadmap for change.
This ICOR meeting will focus on ‘Designing a new research communication paradigm,’ sharing the accomplishments so far, opening the floor for feedback and ideas, and seeking to broaden participation from communities working on open science, research integrity, and advancing faster, better outcomes.
The work to date has marked initial progress, beginning with a workshop at the Janelia Research Campus in December 2024. It has continued in meetings and working groups run by The Continuous Science Foundation and elsewhere.
The Action Collaborative is a group of experts who have been convening regularly and working together to envision an improved research communication paradigm by reimagining research workflows in a digital and AI world, aiming to produce a new system that advances early, researcher-driven sharing of all research outputs. Group participation has been flexible, fluid and nimble, with informal discussions and workshops. The set-up is to focus on alignment, not consensus, with an emphasis on finding agreement rather than getting stuck on peripheral differences, and a remit to use imagination to leapfrog known challenges.
Through the virtual and practical sessions, the group’s work has converged on five overlapping focus areas that together shape a shared vision:
- Research Assembly
- Record of Versions
- Transparency and Trust Signals
- Reviewing
- Curation and Synthesis
Event Agenda
- Introduction (10 mins)
- Setting the Scene: The Action Collaborative’s Origins and Purpose – Kristen Ratan
- Lightning Talks (30 mins)
- Research Assembly for Full-Stack Research Sharing (5 mins) – Rowan Cockett
- Building a Record of Versions: “The Knowledge Graph” (5 mins) – Stephanie Orphan
- Connecting Transparency and Trust Signals (5 mins) – Richard Sever
- Summary of PLOS’ “Redefining Publishing: Practical Pathways to Open Science” Report (5 mins) – Iain Hrynaszkiewicz
- What’s next: Decentralised Review and New Ways to Curate and Synthesise Knowledge (2 mins) – Kristen Ratan
- Cross-Cutting Themes (5 mins)
- Highlighting Common Themes Across the 5 Focus Areas – Zoe Wake Hyde
- Wrap-Up & Next Steps (5 mins)
- How to Follow Our Progress and Join the Wider Discussion
What’s Next for the Action Collaborative?
Moving forward, the group will widen participation and synergise with other aligned groups. We will continue iterating on this new paradigm, integrating ideas across our five core focus areas, and identifying and logging projects and resources relevant to the Open Research Beacon (ORB). The Action Collaborative includes stress-testing every proposal from the researcher’s perspective. We need to answer critical questions: What do researchers actually need? How do they benefit? What behaviour changes are required, and how do these needs vary across different scientific disciplines?
Get Involved
We are eager to bring in fresh perspectives from outside the core Action Collaborative working group to help refine our work.
- Give Feedback: If you want to get involved, please subscribe to the ICOR mailing list.
- Track Progress: All ongoing work and related projects from the Action Collaborative will be logged on the Open Research Beacon to spark cross-network collaborations.
We look forward to your participation!