Web3: Stopping the (link) rot

Science and scientific communication have become more digital over the last few decades, but it has also become clear that the internet was not developed to enable a digital version of the scientific record. The scientific community feels the shortcomings of the current digital infrastructure daily: For example, the internet tends to facilitate data silos, which are used by publishers to create paywalls around scientific articles, making the majority of published science inaccessible to most people, including many scientists. 

Furthermore, URLs on the current Internet break constantly, leading to “404 - not found” errors that we are all too familiar with. The content accessible by a URL can also change over time, leading to ‘content drift’; both link rot and content drift affect affect the majority of the scientific record and its references. 

Paywalls, link rot, and content drift are obvious challenges to the scientific enterprise, which relies on fast access to reliable information. 

Web3 technologies offer a way to overcome these challenges. For example, IPFS, the distributed file system and content addressing protocol, is one of the largest peer-to-peer content delivery networks in the world. It enables users to store any content on the network using a persistent identifier.  

The internet tends to facilitate data silos, which are used by publishers to create paywalls around scientific articles, making the majority of published science inaccessible to most

This identifier is generated from the actual content of the files, functioning as a unique digital fingerprint. This fingerprint is impossible to forge, ensuring that users can confirm that the content they intended to access is exactly what they receive. Furthermore, several network participants can store and serve the same content using the same identifier, contributing to long-term availability and quick accessibility. 

This architecture is ideal for storing and sharing all scientific content (e.g. manuscripts, data, images). Link rot or content drift are problems of the past, and the decentralised peer-to-peer architecture enables data sovereignty and helps to protect against data loss.

In addition, Web3 technologies do not only allow users to access and share information; they also have native support for the ownership and transfer of digital assets. 

This facilitates the development of systems that can reward referees for their contributions. Such systems could address several significant issues in the scientific community. For example, they may reduce the lengthy waiting times authors face for their work to be reviewed and help editors find qualified referees more easily. Moreover, they could solve the problem of unpaid peer review, which is currently standard and amounts to a multi-billion dollar donation of scientists to commercial publishers every year. 

They may reduce the lengthy waiting times authors face for their work to be reviewed and help editors find qualified referees more easily. Moreover, they could solve the problem of unpaid peer review

These technologies also enable the creation of new business models to validate and curate scientific content - beyond paywalls and author publication charges.  

At DeSci Labs, we embrace these new possibilities to improve the scientific record and the lives of scientists. We have launched an open-source scientific publishing infrastructure that builds on the advantages of IPFS while being user-friendly and making all the web3 magic disappear under the hood. 

On DeSci Publish, scientists can easily share all the outputs of their research (e.g. manuscripts, data, code, images) in one convenient place. Instead of having separate platforms for papers, data, and code, DeSci Publish brings all of them together in the form of versionable research objects that support any file type. 

Updating content is just as easy: Instead of overwriting the older versions, new content is simply added, and every version of every file has a unique identifier that ensures all content is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (i.e. FAIR). 

This allows scientists to easily create a transparent track record of how they arrived at their results by simply uploading their latest milestones during the research process (e.g. first an analysis plan, then data and code, a first version of the manuscripts). This transparency is valued by peers, but also by referees and journal editors. 

It enables scientists to easily launch new journals that can include data or code publications. Additionally, it allows institutions or communities to create their own public research repositories to showcase their complete body of work.

Peer-to-peer architecture gives users choices about who stores their data and how

Soon, we will introduce a market-based system for peer-review services that will enable scientists to get rewarded for providing quick and accurate feedback on the work of others while expanding the scope of what can be reviewed (e.g. validated badges for open data and open code). 

We made a very deliberate decision to build all of this with open-source software, which ensures that the science remains accessible, the technology cannot be bought or shut down, and that the peer-to-peer architecture gives users choices about who stores their data and how. DeSci Labs is at the forefront of this evolution, providing tools that empower scientists to share their work seamlessly while fostering a culture of transparency and collaboration. 

Our platform embodies these principles by integrating various research outputs into a single, user-friendly environment, promoting FAIR practices and enabling innovative peer-review models.

The future of science is bright, and with Web3, we are on the cusp of a new era that truly reflects the collaborative spirit of research.

For the full list of Lab Awards 2024 winners, click here.