In 2024, DataSeer and the Center for Open Science (COS) entered into a partnership designed to help support COS’ pioneering Lifecycle Journal. Lifecycle Journal embraces a pioneering, transparent model of scholarly communication that enables research outputs to be shared and evaluated in all stages of the research lifecycle. It makes submissions public before undergoing evaluation, enabling control by the scholarly community itself. It also uses a distributed evaluation process, partnering with third party service providers to provide experimental human- and machine-based evaluation alongside traditional editorial and peer review assessment.
DataSeer is one of several tools involved in screening publications in the journal. Our compliance checks create a catalog of the datasets associated with a manuscript and returns personalized researcher guidance on data sharing compliance. Because of Lifecycle Journal’s uniquely transparent process, those reports are publicly available alongside each research article.
A little over a year after our partnership began, published articles that have undergone customized DataSeer checks are appearing in Lifecycle Journal. Among them are: “Self-leadership and innovative work behaviors: Testing a parallel mediation model with goal striving and goal generation” from Kura et al and “Development and Validation of the Interpersonal Hate Questionnaire (IHQ)” from Rapgay et al. The DataSeer reports are here and here, respectively. These first few publications hint at the enormous potential of AI-assisted editorial screening to ease pain points in the editorial process and keep scholarly journals sustainable in the face of rising submission volumes and increasing requirements.
“It’s exciting to be a part of this new evaluation process,” said DataSeer founder and CEO Tim Vines. “Today’s editorial and research integrity policy requirements are such that no journal can hope to keep up with manual operations alone. The Lifecycle model uses AI for the detailed, systematic tasks AI does so well, like data checks and plagiarism screening, while relying on human editors for the parts of the process that require nuanced thought, judgement, and creativity.”
“Our goal with Lifecycle Journal is to open up the evaluation of research to happen throughout the research lifecycle,” said Eileen Clancy, Managing Editor of Lifecycle Journal. “This collaborative partnership with DataSeer enables us to combine automated checks with human editorial oversight, making the process more efficient while upholding transparency and integrity.”
As we embark on our second year of collaboration, we look forward to continuing to refine and expand the ways DataSeer and COS can streamline open, transparent publishing. Lifecycle Journal’s approach demonstrates what’s possible when automation and human expertise work hand in hand — reducing friction in the editorial process while upholding the highest standards of research integrity. Together, we’re helping to build a future where sharing and evaluating research is faster, fairer, and more reproducible, empowering both authors and editors to focus on what truly matters: advancing knowledge for the benefit of science and society.
