Scott Edmunds

GigaScience Press would like to congratulate Victoire Nsabatien for
[winning a 2024 Ben Barres Spotlight
Award](https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/b5d03822/ben-barres-spotlight-awards-announcing-the-winners-for-2024)
for his two preprints publicly reviewed and published by *GigaByte.*
Prizes are a good way of positively reinforcing and incentivizing good
practice in opening up science, and eLife should be commended creating
the Ben Barres Spotlight Award for groups that are underrepresented in
biology and medicine. eLife also need to be thanked for supporting the
Sciety platform that allows preprint-review integration with *GigaByte*
and *GigaScience* Journals, as the award incentivises groups active on
the Sciety platform, and made this work eligible for the award.
*GigaByte* Journal has integrated a novel 'Publish, Review, Curate'
(PRC) peer-review model, in partnership with eLife. Using eLife's
[Sciety platform *GigaByte*
offers](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/peer-review-week-2023/) a
highlighted editor's assessment of each reviewed preprint, helping
readers gauge the interest and importance of the work, while also
throwing light on the review and assessment process of research.

::: {#attachment_5852 .wp-caption .aligncenter style="width: 613px"}
![Ben Barres Award winning
data](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-08-at-12.10.59-PM-300x275.png){.wp-image-5852
fetchpriority="high" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5852" width="603" height="553"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-08-at-12.10.59-PM-300x275.png 300w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-08-at-12.10.59-PM-1024x938.png 1024w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-08-at-12.10.59-PM-768x704.png 768w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-08-at-12.10.59-PM.png 1264w"
sizes="(max-width: 603px) 100vw, 603px"}

Ben Barres Award winning entry sharing crucial malaria vector data from
the Democratic Republic of Congo to the GBIF repository.
:::

Victoire provided two submissions to our [Vectors of Human Disease
series](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/second-call-vector-papers/)
describing and sharing data [in the GBIF
repository](https://doi.org/10.15468/excax3) from Anopheles malaria and
Arbovirus carrying *Aedes* mosquitoes from different districts of
Kinshasa. As *GigaByte* mandates preprints and integrates with Sciety,
you can see the winning entries publicly reviewed and evaluated here:

<https://sciety.org/articles/activity/10.46471/gigabyte.96>

<https://sciety.org/articles/activity/10.46471/gigabyte.104>

Victoire will use this \$5000 award to purchase laboratory equipment and
research consumables for testing low-cost plant-based larvicides for[
mosquito control in the DRC]{.css-1jxf684 .r-bcqeeo .r-1ttztb7 .r-qvutc0
.r-poiln3}, saying, "I'm proud to receive this prestigious award.
Malaria is a major public health burden in my country, and this grant
will greatly enhance my research into potential new tools to control
malaria mosquitoes." You can see a video of Victoire celebrating the
award on our [youtube channel](https://youtu.be/ALjToB00wRI).

On top of [scientometric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientometrics)
work demonstrating directly to authors the citations and credit they
will receive upon making their supporting data, another way to promote
open data sharing is through prizes, including the BMC Open Data award
that our [Assemblathon2 paper won in
2014](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/bioinformatics-birthdays-and-booze-at-boston-bosc/).
We also have a soft spot for innovation awards, *GigaScience* winning
the [AAP PROSE Award for Innovation in Publishing in
2018](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigascience-prose-award-for-innovation/)
and GigaByte winning [the ALPSP Award for Innovation in
Publishing](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigabyte-alpsp-innovation-award/)
in 2022. Promoting more transparent peer review and reducing barriers,
we also see this Ben Barres award as recognition for our [efforts to
better address the four key pillars of Open
Science](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/birthday-at-ismb2022/)
highlighted by UNESCO. If you have further work for the vectors in human
disease series (which is still open), or also want to try out our more
transparent and equitable modes of peer review please get in touch.

### **References: ** {#references}

Victoire Nsabatien et al., Data from Entomological Collections of
*Aedes* (Diptera: Culicidae) in a post-epidemic area of Chikungunya,
City of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gigabyte, 2023
<https://doi.org/10.46471/gigabyte.96>

Zanga J at al. Species composition and distribution of the *Anopheles
gambiae* complex circulating in Kinshasa, *Gigabyte*, 2024 
<https://doi.org/10.46471/gigabyte.104>

The post [GigaByte Author Wins A Ben Barres Spotlight Award for Publicly
Reviewed
Preprints](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigabyte-author-ben-barres-award/){rel="nofollow"}
appeared first on
[GigaBlog](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog){rel="nofollow"}.


GigaScience Press would like to congratulate Victoire Nsabatien for winning a 2024 Ben Barres Spotlight Award for his two preprints publicly reviewed and published by
<em>
 GigaByte.
</em>
Prizes are a good way of positively reinforcing and incentivizing good practice in opening up science, and eLife should be commended creating the Ben Barres Spotlight Award for groups that are underrepresented in biology and medicine.

GigaByte Author Wins A Ben Barres Spotlight Award for Publicly Reviewed Preprints

*GigaByte Journal wins the ALPSP Innovation Award for their interactive
articles and tools aimed at fulfilling the UNESCO Recommendation on Open
Science*

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">
<img
src="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/gigascience_alpsp-finals_blog-win.jpeg"
class="wp-image-4575" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/gigascience_alpsp-finals_blog-win.jpeg 700w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/gigascience_alpsp-finals_blog-win-300x94.jpeg 300w"
sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" width="700" height="220" />
</figure>

We at GigaScience Press are very pleased to announce that our newest
journal *GigaByte* has won the [2022 ALPSP Award for Innovation in
Scholarly Publishing](https://www.alpsp.org/Awards). Presented every
year at the meeting of the Association of Learned and Professional
Society Publishers, now in its 50th year, this award recognizes the best
innovators in professional publishing communities at a time of rapid
change in the field. The award was given in recognition of our
*out-of-the-box* solutions to address the [UNESCO Recommendation on Open
Science](https://en.unesco.org/science-sustainable-future/open-science/recommendation),
and thus, to open engagement of research and to promote the inclusion of
traditionally marginalized scholars. To achieve these goals, GigaScience
Press partnered with [River Valley
Technologies](https://rivervalley.io/) to develop a unique XML-first
publishing platform that allows extremely rapid, low-cost article
publication. The technology underlying these articles enables the
inclusion of a variety of features that let readers interact directly
with the data used in the research. In addition, the content and the
interface can be presented in any language, making article access highly
inclusive.

In November 2021, the UNESCO ratified its [Recommendation on Open
Science](https://en.unesco.org/science-sustainable-future/open-science/recommendation),
specifically addressing UNESCO's aim for "fostering a culture of open
science and aligning incentives for open science". The UNESCO directives
cover not only scientific articles, but also scientific data, tools,
infrastructure, etc., making them available to everyone, including
groups that have typically been ignored in the decision processes in
international research and use of all available scientific
information.  

GigaScience Press has [looked to the UNESCO
Recommendation](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/birthday-at-ismb2022/)
on Open Science to serve as a roadmap to identify areas that are
essential to include in scientific publishing and communication
processes (see our [Editorial in
*GigaScience*](https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giac067) outlining
this work). While the Press has made many inroads in achieving these
directives with our first journal, *GigaScience*, [now in its tenth
year](https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/pages/a-decade-of-gigascience)
and also an innovation award winner ([winning the PROSE award in
2018)](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigascience-prose-award-for-innovation/),
it is our partnership with [River Valley
Technologies](https://rivervalley.io/) that has opened the way to begin
tackling many of the more challenging goals. The publishing and article
hosting platform is built-for-purpose, and includes the ability to
easily accommodate a host of dynamic interactive tools within the paper,
allow the articles to be present in different languages, and more.

<figure
class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio">
<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
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aufgetreten.</h1>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVdKLtRGSYs"
target="_blank">Sieh dir dieses Video auf www.youtube.com an</a> oder
aktiviere JavaScript, falls es in deinem Browser deaktiviert sein
sollte.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</figure>

Scott Edmunds, Chief Editor of
*[GigaByte](https://gigabytejournal.com/)*, highlighted the significant
role of River Valley Technologies for achieving those goals:  "XML-first
publishing workflows have been talked about for a long time, but it's
fantastic for *​​GigaByte* to be acknowledged as the first to demonstrate
not only that the system works, but that it has real-world benefits,
such as reducing costs and increasing accessibility and interactivity in
scientific publishing. An excellent example of its use is that this
system, due to its high speed and low cost, enabled the recent
publication of a [series on Vectors of Human
Disease,](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/vector-borne-diseases-series/)
sponsored by the TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in
Tropical Diseases, [hosted at the World Health
Organization](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/vectors-of-human-diseases-series/).
More than half of the submissions were from Latin America, and our
ability to publish these articles in our multilingual format further
broke down barriers, allowing Portuguese and Spanish speakers to better
comprehend the implications of important work relating to the public
health of their communities."

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized">
<img
src="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/00F6AA4B-9383-482B-AC8D-DE3F178EC9F4-1024x762.jpeg"
class="wp-image-4571" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/00F6AA4B-9383-482B-AC8D-DE3F178EC9F4-1024x762.jpeg 1024w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/00F6AA4B-9383-482B-AC8D-DE3F178EC9F4-300x223.jpeg 300w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/00F6AA4B-9383-482B-AC8D-DE3F178EC9F4-768x571.jpeg 768w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/00F6AA4B-9383-482B-AC8D-DE3F178EC9F4.jpeg 1218w"
sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" width="768" height="572"
alt="ALPSP Innovation Award" />
<figcaption>Scott, Laurie and Kaveh receiving the ALPSP Innovation Award
at the conference dinner.</figcaption>
</figure>

The publishing platform is practically automated, thus drastically
reducing publication costs. The cost savings can be passed on to the
researcher, opening the door for many researchers around the world
previously unable to afford publishing costs. The [current article
processing charge
(APC)](https://gigabytejournal.com/open-access-and-apc) for *GigaByte*
is \$350 USD (with waivers provided for researchers where appropriate.)
The industry average APC is some \$2,000 USD, with some journal APCs
costing more than \$10,000 per article.

GigaScience Press Publishing Director Laurie Goodman said: "Although the
publishing industry is working hard to become more inclusive, language
and cost barriers remain substantial. International journals are
typically presented only in English, impacting a large percent of
scientists in non-English speaking countries, even in an open-access
environment. In addition, high APCs, even with discounts, make it
extremely difficult for researchers in less-well-funded laboratories
from publishing their work and their achievements."

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">
<img
src="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/464EDA4A-9C69-49E6-A0E1-88EF1298C819-768x1024.jpeg"
class="wp-image-4573" loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/464EDA4A-9C69-49E6-A0E1-88EF1298C819-768x1024.jpeg 768w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/464EDA4A-9C69-49E6-A0E1-88EF1298C819-225x300.jpeg 225w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/464EDA4A-9C69-49E6-A0E1-88EF1298C819-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/464EDA4A-9C69-49E6-A0E1-88EF1298C819.jpeg 1536w"
sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" width="768" height="1024"
alt="receiving the ALPSP Innovation Award from David Sommer" />
<figcaption>On stage receiving the ALPSP Innovation Award from David
Sommer</figcaption>
</figure>

While our *GigaByte* articles can still be downloaded as an
industry-standard PDF, the article publication focus is on the XML
version of the paper. This XML links to the research data and the code,
to interactive views of the results, to different languages and views,
and to all of the dynamic features. As well as improving the readability
for machines (see our [text and data mining
portal](https://gigabytejournal.com/text-and-data-mining)), the platform
allows integrated language support and options for human readers to
select how they want to view papers including, for example, the ability
to view the article in a dyslexic-friendly font.

River Valley Director Kaveh Bazargan said: "It has been a pleasure
working with *GigaByte*.  Their openness and their appetite to push the
boundaries of publishing has allowed us to deploy our unique XML-first
technology to embed complex and interactive objects such as immersive 3D
content, and simultaneously cutting time and cost of publishing.
Articles are published within 24 hours of acceptance and are fully
accessible."

*GigaByte* shared first place with [Charlesworth
Gateway](https://cwbot.com.cn/), which provides a more efficient means
of communicating between editors and Chinese authors during the
submission and publication process. David Sommer, Chair of the judging
panel and co-founder at Kudos said of the winners and goals of the
award: "This year's winners highlight how our industry is responding to
the changing needs of authors and researchers together with the move
towards making the scholarly record accessible to a broader audience
worldwide."

The post [GigaByte Wins 2022 ALPSP Innovation
Award](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigabyte-alpsp-innovation-award/){rel="nofollow"}
appeared first on
[GigaBlog](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog){rel="nofollow"}.


<em>
 GigaByte Journal wins the ALPSP Innovation Award for their interactive articles and tools aimed at fulfilling the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science
</em>
We at GigaScience Press are very pleased to announce that our newest journal
<em>
 GigaByte
</em>
has won the 2022 ALPSP Award for Innovation in Scholarly Publishing.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

GigaByte Author Wins A Ben Barres Spotlight Award for Publicly Reviewed Preprints

GigaByte Wins 2022 ALPSP Innovation Award