‘Goodreads for Science’: How Paperstars reimagines the way science should be judged
Paperstars was developed to help refocus research culture on doing good science, rather than on where papers are published. Founded by Danny Schnitzler and Jenna Stephen, the platform aims to decouple research quality from journal prestige and give scientists a quick, constructive way to signal which papers really matter. Here,…
| Posted on | 23 April 2026 |
Can we spot scientific breakthroughs before they happen?
How do funding decisions shape the direction of biomedical research? Can we spot transformative discoveries years before they are recognised by prizes, policies, or the wider community? And what can patterns of scientific communication tell us about how breakthroughs actually emerge? In a new spotLights episode, preLighter Jonathan Townson speaks…
| Posted on | 15 April 2026 |
Preprints without borders: SciELO Preprints’ push for multilingual, Open Science in Latin America and beyond
preLights recently spoke with Carolina Tanigushi who now looks after SciELO Preprints, the preprint server that is part of the SciELO Network. We talked about SciELO’s shift into an Open Science programme, the opportunities and challenges of running a preprint service across 16 national collections, and practical steps to boost…
| Posted on | 14 January 2026 |
From preLighter to Executive Editor: How Samantha Seah helps students find their voice in science
In this interview, we hear from Samantha Seah, a former preLighter who will soon step into the role of Executive Editor at the Journal of Emerging Investigators. Here, Samantha traces JEI’s origins, explains how student projects are reviewed and supported, describes recent expansions like eiRxiv and teacher resources, and shares…
| Posted on | 10 December 2025 |
preLighting with a little help from AI
Written by: Reinier Prosée, preLights Community Manager Note: this post got a little help from Microsoft Copilot to keep things clear and to-the-point. Writing is perhaps more an art than a science, something I realised while co-moderating a creative workshop on science communication earlier this year. This is not to…
| Posted on | 17 November 2025 |
Gauri Gharpure on hoverflies in the Himalayas – spotLights episode 15 is now live
In episode 15, recorded at the Biologists @ 100 conference in Liverpool, preLighter Jonathan Townson talks to Gauri Gharpure, a PhD student at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bengaluru, India. Gauri shares insights from her recent preprint on how the hoverfly Eristalis tenax adapts to life at different…
| Posted on | 13 June 2025 |