PeerJ now requires authors to deposit ‘selfies’ in a data repository prior to publication

For immediate release.

We know from experience that people looking to confirm previously reported results often can’t find a suitable image of the study’s authors. This leads to concerns such as whether or not the conclusions can be trusted. It also means the authors may not actually exist if the selfie is suspected or missing. Full deposition of selfies can mitigate such issues.

Additionally, we’re hoping to data mine selfie images, as we suspect they could reliably replace the impact factor as the new metric for determining journal and article quality during assessment.

“The trend in science is clear, the selfie is now an indispensable part of the scientific record. It deserves to be treated as a first class citizen and we welcome this step forward,” stated Floral Poi (Head of the WCBI Genomics Center), on news of PeerJ’s new policy.

Charles Darwin (see selfie image) was one of the first to use selfies within academic research.

As a publisher we often get business requests asking our press office for photos of ‘scientists.’ Knowing that we have selfies securely stored means not worrying about finding them months or years after publication, and also ensures a secondary revenue stream for PeerJ. We plan to return 30% of all revenues back to the authors if their selfie image is used by any entities such as the Associated Press or modeling agencies.

Finally, at times we’re asked about retractions and whether we have stock images of scientist selfies we can offer to the press or third-parties. These come in handy when it’s time to start pointing fingers and the guiltier the face looks the more likely it is to be used.

We know that a policy change of this magnitude can take time to come to grips with, and we expect complaints to be lodged. We plan to address all of your concerns, which can be sent directly to the contact listed at the end of this announcement. As soon as all of the complaints have been handled, and we’ve incorporated your suggestions (wink wink), we’ll post the full details of this new policy to our author instructions page.

You can show your support for this important policy update by tweeting a message now with the hashtag #PeerJSelfies and if you include your own selfie then we’ll content mine them, so you have no need to deposit later.

Later this week we’ll also be announcing details of a new effort to save authors even more time. We’re proud to reveal that PeerJ has partnered with the NSA to receive your manuscripts by logging your computer keystrokes. That’s right, no more frustrating submission forms. It’s part of a year-long effort of an internal project that we called, “All your keystroke are belong to us.” No longer needing to submit directly to us will once again make the dream of spending time doing science, rather than writing about it, closer to a reality.

Contact: selfies@peerj.com

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p.s. Happy April Fool’s Day from all of us at PeerJ 🙂