News from Rippling Ideas
Happy New Year from Rippling Ideas! We hope you have an incredible 2026. Our big news this month is the release of our report on the state of preprinting - if you advocate for preprints then the data in here will be invaluable for your talks this year!
We’ll be at the Research 2 Reader conference next month in London presenting as part of a panel - come say hi!
Navigate
Preprints & Open Science
Preprints in Motion
Preprints in Motion is currently being incorporated into Rippling Ideas and will be back in Feb!
Latest activity from Rippling Ideas
We’ve just released a landmark report on the “state of preprints” within the Life Sciences.
Read the report - and let us know what you think!
Watch our presentation of the key results over on our YouTube channel
Look out for the openrxivR package we’ve created alongside this (coming soon)
We’ve also created a public Zotero library for preprint advocates containing all the evidence you’ll ever need
Selected News Roundup
I’m not entirely convinced that this is the answer, despite very much supporting the creation of an external regulator of academia (look out for that article this year)
Great to see how successful openRxiv has been in its first year!
See the data here. This is a very important question and these findings don’t, on the surface, appear overly encouraging. However, the outcomes mainly point towards the need for more studies addressing this question and the difficulties in designing such work.
This is an excellent insight into the role of preprints during the pandemic, written by someone at the very heart of the action!
Two key points from this; “researchers believe that peer review of papers is the foundation for ensuring the credibility of research content” and are increasingly concerned with soaring APCs.
Academic Culture
Latest activity from Rippling Ideas
We’re currently working on a number of resources focussed on academic culture, the first of which will release soon.
Selected News Roundup
If you want to move away to BlueSky, check out our guide
Very much agree with this post! It’s worth mentioning that across social media, there are also many peer reviews and other comments relevant to publications/preprints that should be archived, surfaced and maintained.
This asks some difficult questions that are incredibly important for all academic reform movements
Good! It’s great that more UK universities are following the lead of those that first broke free last year.
Trust in Research
Selected News Roundup
The impact of the US administration on reducing trust in science cannot be overstated. This is a good read.
Great piece from Dorothy Bishop
Fantastic 3rd in a series from these authors.
In a survey of 485 biology researchers, this study found that, when they serve on committees that assess research and researchers for hiring, promotion, or grant awards most researchers surveyed are not satisfied with their ability to make assessments about the intrinsic quality of research.
Whilst this should enrage every researcher and citizen, what it does not measure is the damage to trust.
Get involved
Join our tribe!
We’re actively seeking funders and clients, currently developing some proposals and projects. We’re also looking for collaborators and volunteers - we want you as part of our tribe. So please share this newsletter with those you know and recommend us as widely as possible.
What’s coming up?
Right now, we’re developing our virtual training course options and discussing some extremely exciting new projects; including the launch of a residency program. We’ll be at the R2R conference in Feb, moderating a panel. If you’d like to collaborate or work with us please do get in touch.
