Since introducing the eLife Model for publishing, we’ve made a lot of changes to how our journal displays reviewed and assessed research outputs. Accommodating the Reviewed Preprint raised questions about how we would best indicate what stage an article is at, how we display eLife Assessments and how we integrate the article’s version history.
After many prototypes and much user testing, these changes have been introduced piece by piece since last June to help deliver a browsing and reading experience that highlights the work of authors and better meets the needs of readers.
Many of the changes discussed in this article were considered as part of our winning entry for the OpenAthens UX Award.
“eLife clearly demonstrated they are taking user experience to the next level in their innovative approach to public review and assessment of preprints. We congratulate them on their achievement!"
– Jane Charlton, UX Award organiser
Browse the latest research
Our new journal browse page helps readers find the research they’re looking for without searching based on keywords. This can help surface useful research that may not have been a top result in journal search. It offers a freer way to explore the literature, gain a broader perspective on new and existing studies, and enables serendipitous discovery of papers that may be unexpectedly relevant or useful.
Readers will be able to select multiple research categories and minimum criteria for both the strength of evidence and significance of the findings given in eLife Assessments.
The eLife Model provides a nuanced assessment of research and the controlled vocabulary of the eLife Assessment is best understood in the context of the full written assessment. However, readers who are looking for research further along its journey can now filter in papers above their desired threshold. Readers who are looking for the latest big breakthroughs in a field can now filter to only Fundamental or Landmark papers.
Clarifying article status and version
We’ve also made changes to our journal search. Results now show the stage of each article from Version 1 Reviewed Preprint, a revised Version 2, or the final Version of Record.
Each article stage is colour coded and these are also clearly visible in the top right corner of the article page. This shows the stage of the currently viewed version of the article and the option to show and switch between all versions. These changes have greatly increased reader engagement with the version status information, helping to better highlight the status of Reviewed Preprints and Versions of Record.
Explaining eLife Assessments
eLife Assessments are now given more prominence on article pages, appearing before the abstract to help better inform readers about the evaluation of the article. Views of eLife Assessments have doubled since moving them above the abstract.
eLife Assessments now also contain a dropdown helping to explain and contextualise the eLife Assessment vocabulary within the two scales. This dropdown is used 15 times more frequently than the previous link to more information.
Let us know what you think
We will continue to listen to and consider feedback. We’re building a publishing model that meets the needs and serves the interest of the research community, both authors and readers.
“eLife has always taken a user-driven approach to the design of our website and publication process, and this is especially the case for the eLife Model where we’re doing something very different to other publishers. Our team has put in a significant amount of work to ensure the process is as clear and intuitive as possible for all our stakeholders, including authors, readers and other users of the Reviewed Preprints we publish.”
– Chris Huggins, eLife’s Lead UX Designer
If you have any feedback or would like to discuss these changes, please contact us at site-feedback@elifesciences.org.
