Category: Fossil Record

Here’s to a year of growing and succeeding together!

Within and beyond our Pensoft team, we celebrate a year of well-nourished partnerships and excitement for the future

Yet another hectic year has passed for our team at Pensoft, so it feels right to look back at the highlights from the last 12 months, as we buckle up for the leaps and strides in 2025.

In the past, we have used the occasion to take you back to the best moments of our most popular journals (see this list of 2023 highlights from ZooKeys, MycoKeys, PhytoKeys and more!); share milestones related to our ARPHA publishing platform (see the new journals, integrations and features from 2023); or let you reminisce about the coolest research published across our journals during the year (check out our Top 10 new species from 2021).

In 2022, when we celebrated our 30th anniversary on the academic scene, we extended our festive spirit throughout the year as we dived deep into those fantastic three decades. We put up Pensoft’s timeline and finished the year with a New Species Showdown tournament, where our followers on (what was back then) Twitter voted twice a week for their favourite species EVER described on the pages of our taxonomic journals.

Spoiler alert: we will be releasing our 2024 Top 10 New Species on Monday, 23 December, so you’d better go to the right of this screen and subscribe to our blog!

As we realised we might’ve been a bit biased towards our publishing activities over the years, this time, hereby, we chose to present you a retrospection that captures our best 2024 moments from across the departments, and shed light on how the publishing, technology and project communication endeavours fit together to make Pensoft what it is.

In truth, we take pride in being an exponentially growing family of multiple departments that currently comprises over 60 full-time employees and about a dozen freelancers working from all corners of the world, including Australia, Canada, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Together, we are all determined to make sure we continuously improve our service to all who have trusted us: authors, reviewers, editors, client journals, learned societies, research institutions, project consortia and other external collaborators.


After all, great deeds are only possible when you team up with great like-minded people!

Pensoft as an open-access academic publisher 

Pensoft’s stand at the 2024 TDWG-SPNHC joint conference (September, Japan).

In 2024, at Pensoft, we were hugely pleased to see a significant growth in the published output at almost all our journals, including record-breaking numbers in both submissions and publications at flagship titles of ours, including the Biodiversity Data Journal, PhytoKeys and MycoKeys. 

Other fantastic news came in June from our Indexing team, who confirmed that One Ecosystem: a quite unique and novel academic outlet we launched in collaboration with the Ecosystem Services Partnership in 2016 – received its first Impact Factor. 

Later in 2024, our colleagues, who work together with our clients to ensure their journals comply with the requirements of the top scholarly databases before they apply for indexation, informed us that another two journals in our portfolio have had their applications to Clarivate’s Web of Science successfully accepted. These are the newest journal of the International Association of Vegetation Science: Vegetation and Classification, and Metabarcoding and Metagenomics: a journal we launched in 2017 in collaboration with a team of brilliant scientists working together at the time within the DNAquaNet COST Action.

In 2024, we also joined the celebrations of our long-time partners at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, whose three journals: Zoosystematics and Evolution, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift and Fossil Record are all part of our journal portfolio. This year marked the 10th Open Access anniversary of the three journals.

10 years of Open Access: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and Pensoft celebrate a decade of partnership

In the meantime, we also registered a record in new titles either joining the Pensoft portfolio or opting for ARPHA Platform’s white-label publishing solution, where journal owners retain exclusivity for the publication of their titles, yet use ARPHA’s end-to-end technology and as many human-provided services as necessary.

Pensoft’s CEO and founder Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev with Prof. Dr. Marc Stadler, Editor-in-Chief of IMA Fungus and President of the International Mycological Association at the Pensoft booth at the 12th International Mycological Congress (August, the Netherlands). 

Amongst our new partners are the International Mycological Association who moved their official journal IMA Fungus to ARPHA Platform. As part of Pensoft’s scholarly portfolio, the renowned journal joins another well-known academic title in the field of mycology: MycoKeys, which was launched by Pensoft in 2011. The big announcement was aptly made public at this year’s 12th International Mycological Congress where visitors of the Pensoft stand could often spot newly elected IMA President and IMA Fungus Chief editor: Marc Stadler chatting with our founder and CEO Lyubomir Penev by the Pensoft/MycoKeys booth.

Other partners who chose the services of ARPHA Platform for their journals in 2024 include the International Biogeography Society, United Arab Emirates University and Medical University Pleven.

On our end, we did not stop supporting enthusiastic and proactive scientists in their attempt to bridge gaps in scientific knowledge. In January, we launched the Estuarine Management and Technologies journal together with Dr. Soufiane Haddout of the Ibn Tofail University, Morocco. 

Later on, Dr. Franco Andreone (Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Italy) sought us with the idea to launch a journal addressing the role of natural history museums and herbaria collections in scientific progress. This collaboration resulted in the Natural History Collections and Museomics journal, officially announced at the joint TDWG-SPNHC conference in Okinawa, Japan in August.

Natural History Collections and Museomics launches with its inaugural editorial

Around this time, we finalised our similarly exciting journal project in partnership with Prof. Dr. Volker Grimm (UFZ, Germany), Prof. Dr. Karin Frank (UFZ, Germany), Prof. Dr. Mark E. Hauber (City University of New York) and Prof. Dr. Florian Jeltsch (University of Potsdam, Germany). The outcome of this collaboration is called Individual-based Ecology: a journal that aims to promote an individual-based perspective in ecology, as it closes the knowledge gap between individual-level responses and broader ecological patterns.

ARPHA Platform welcomes new journal launched by Pensoft: Individual-based Ecology

The three newly-launched journals are all published under the Diamond Open Access model, where neither access, nor publication is subject to charges.

As you can see, we have a lot to be proud of in terms of our journals. This is also why in 2024 our team took a record number of trips to attend major scientific events, where we got the chance to meet face-to-face with long-time editors, authors, reviewers and readers of our journals. Even more exciting was meeting the new faces of scientific research and learning about their own take on scholarship and academic journals.

Pensoft’s CEO and founder Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev welcomed editors at PhytoKeys to the Pensoft-PhytoKeys-branded booth at the XX International Botanical Congress in July 2024 (Spain).

In 2024, we presented our journals and publishing opportunities at about 20 scientific forums, including the XX International Botanical Congress (July, Spain), the 12th International Mycological Congress (August, the Netherlands), the 10th World Congress of Herpetology (August, Malaysia) and the XXVII International Congress of Entomology (August, Japan).

Pensoft as a scientific technology provider

We cannot possibly comment on Pensoft’s tech progress in 2024 without mentioning the EU-funded project BiCIKL (acronym for Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library) that we coordinated for three years ending up last April. 

This 36-month endeavour saw 14 member institutions and 15 research infrastructures representing diverse actors from the biodiversity data realm come together to improve bi-directional links between different platforms, standards, formats and scientific fields. 

Following these three years of collaborative work, we reported a great many notable research outputs from our consortium (find about them in the open-science project collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes journal, titled “Towards interlinked FAIR biodiversity knowledge: The BiCIKL perspective”) that culminated in the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub: a one-stop portal that allows users to access FAIR and interlinked biodiversity data and services in a few clicks; and also a set of policy recommendations addressing key policy makers, research institutions and funders who deal with various types of data about the world’s biodiversity, and are thereby responsible to ensuring there findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR-ness).

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub
Visit the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub: the main product of the BiCIKL consortium at: https://biodiversityknowledgehub.eu/.

Apart from coordinating BiCIKL, we also worked side-by-side with our partners to develop, refine and test each other’s tools and services, in order to make sure that they communicate efficiently with each other, thereby aligning with the principles of FAIR data and the needs of the scientific community in the long run.

During those three years we made a lot of refinements to our OpenBiodiv: a biodiversity database containing knowledge extracted from scientific literature, built as an Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System, and our ARPHA Writing Tool. The latter is an XML-based online authoring environment using a large set of pre-formatted templates, where manuscripts are collaboratively written, edited and submitted to participating journals published on ARPHA Platform. What makes the tool particularly special is its multiple features that streamline and FAIRify data publishing as part of a scientific publication, especially in the field of biodiversity knowledge. In fact, we made enough improvements to the ARPHA Writing Tool that we will be soon officially releasing its 2.0 version!

OpenBiodiv – The Open Biodiversity Knowledge Management System
ARPHA Writing Tool 2.0

Amongst our collaborative projects are the Nanopublications for Biodiversity workflow that we co-developed with KnowledgePixels to allow researchers to ‘fragment’ their most important scientific findings into machine-actionable and machine-interpretable statements. Being the smallest units of publishable information, these ‘pixels of knowledge’ present an assertion about anything that can be uniquely identified and attributed to its author and serve to communicate a single statement, its original source (provenance) and citation record (publication info).

Nanopublications for Biodiversity

In partnership with the Swiss-based Text Mining group of Patrick Ruch at SIB and the text- and data-mining association Plazi, we brought the SIB Literature Services (SIBiLS) database one step closer to solidifying its “Biodiversity PMC” portal and working title.

Towards the “Biodiversity PMC”: a literature database supporting advanced content queries

Understandably, we spent a lot of effort, time and enthusiasm in raising awareness about our most recent innovations, in addition to our long-standing workflows, formats and tools developed with the aim to facilitate open and efficient access to scientific data; and their integration into published scholarly work, as well as receiving well-deserved recognition for their collection.

We just can’t stress it enough how important and beneficial it is for everyone to have high-quality FAIR data, ideally made available within a formal scientific publication!    

Pensoft’s CTO Teodor Georgiev talks about innovative methods and good practices in the publication of biodiversity data in scholarly papers at the First national meeting of the Bulgarian Barcode of Life (BgBOL) consortium (December, Bulgaria).
Pensoft’s CEO and founder Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev presenting his “Data papers on biodiversity” talk at the “Biodiversity data in montane and arid Eurasia” symposium jointly organized by GBIF and by the Institute of Zoology of Republic of Kazakhstan (November, Kazakhstan).

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Pensoft’s CTO Teodor Georgiev presents new features and workflows currently in testing at the ARPHA Writing Tool 2.0 at the EASE Autumn Symposium 2024 (online event).

Pensoft’s Head of Journal development, Marketing and PR Iva Boyadzhieva talks about Pensoft’s data publishing approach and innovations at the German Ecological Society 53rd Annual Conference (September, Germany).

Pensoft as a science communicator

At our Project team, which is undoubtedly the fastest developing department at Pensoft, science communicators are working closely with technology and publishing teams to help consortia bring their scientific results closer to policy actors, decision-makers and the society at large.

Ultimately, bridging the notorious chasm between researchers and global politics boils down to mutual understanding and dialogue. 

Pensoft’s communication team attended COP16 (November 2024, Colombia) along with partners at the consortia of CO-OP4CBD, BioAgora and RESPIN: three Horizon Europe projects, whose communication and dissemination is led by Pensoft.

Throughout 2024, the team, comprising 20 science communicators and project managers, has been working as part of 27 EU-funded project consortia, including nine that have only started this year (check out all partnering projects on the Pensoft website, ordered from most recently started to oldest). Apart from communicating key outcomes and activities during the duration of the projects, at many of the projects, our team has also been actively involved in their grant proposal drafting, coordination, administration, platform development, graphic and web design and others (see all project services offered by Pensoft to consortia).

Naturally, we had a seat on the front row during many milestones achieved by our partners at all those 27 ongoing projects, and communicated to the public by our communicators. 

Amongst those are the release of the InsectsCount web application developed within the Horizon 2020 project SHOWCASE. Through innovative gamification elements, the app encourages users to share valuable data about flower-visiting insects, which in turn help researchers gain new knowledge about the relationship between observed species and the region’s land use and management practices (learn more about InsectsCount on the SHOWCASE prroject website). 

Another fantastic project output was the long-awaited dataset of maps of annual forest disturbances across 38 European countries derived from the Landsat satellite data archive published by the Horizon Europe project ForestPaths in April (find more about the European Forest Disturbance Atlas on the ForestPaths project website).

In a major company highlight, last month, our project team participated in COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan with a side event dedicated to the role of open science and science communication in climate- and biodiversity-friendly policy.

Pensoft’s participation at COP29 – as well as our perspective on FAIR data and open science – were recently covered in an interview by Exposed by CMD (a US-based news media accredited to cover the event) with our science communicator Alexandra Korcheva and project manager Boris Barov. 

You see, A LOT of great things worth celebrating happened during the year for us at Pensoft: all thanks to ceaselessly flourishing collaboration based on transparency, trust and integrity. Huge ‘THANK YOU!’ goes to everyone who has joined us in our endeavours!

Here’s to many more shared achievements coming up in 2025!

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Fossil Record celebrates its Open Access anniversary with Pensoft

Despite being more than 100 years younger than its fellow Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) journals Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift and Zoosystematics and Evolution, the palaeontological journal Fossil Record has its own proud history of important research.

Established as Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe in 1998, the journal welcomed its 25th birthday last year, and today celebrates ten years of Open Access (OA) publishing. Unlike its sister journals, Fossil Record did not immediately partner with Pensoft upon its transition to OA. However, in 2022, following eight years of successful collaboration, Pensoft began publishing the journal on behalf of MfN.

In this blog post, we take a look back at some of the research that has defined Fossil Record’s Open Access era.

Read our blog post celebrating 10 years of Open Access for all of Museum für Naturkunde Berlin’s journals here.

The geologically oldest specimen of Pterodactylus

Pterodactylus antiquus from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Torleite Formation of Painten. Credit: Augustin et al.

One of Fossil Record’s most popular recent articles is “The geologically oldest specimen of Pterodactylus: a new exquisitely preserved skeleton from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Plattenkalk deposits of Painten (Bavaria, Germany).”

Published in November 2022, the paper has garnered more than 6,500 views, attracting significant news and social media attention. The exceptional imagery in the article emphasises Fossil Record’s commitment to optimal research presentation.

Research paper: Augustin FJ, Kampouridis P, Hartung J, Albersdörfer R, Matzke AT (2022) The geologically oldest specimen of Pterodactylus: a new exquisitely preserved skeleton from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Plattenkalk deposits of Painten (Bavaria, Germany). Fossil Record 25(2): 331-343. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.90692 

Ornithischian dinosaurs in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia map showing the distribution of Jurassic–Cretaceous non-marine sediments in Southeast Asia. Credit: Manitkoon et al.

The 2023 paper “Ornithischian dinosaurs in Southeast Asia: a review with palaeobiogeographic implications” provides an example of major interest within the scientific community. 

With thousands of views and multiple citations, the study illustrates the diversity of ornithischian assemblages in Southeast Asia, providing an updated review and a discussion about their palaeobiogeographic implications.

Research paper: Manitkoon S, Deesri U, Warapeang P, Nonsrirach T, Chanthasit P (2023) Ornithischian dinosaurs in Southeast Asia: a review with palaeobiogeographic implications. Fossil Record 26(1): 1-25. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.26.e93456  

The fossil history of pseudoscorpions

Progonatemnus succineus preserved in amber. Credit: Yamamoto et al.

The most cited paper published in Fossil Record’s Open Access era is “The fossil history of pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones)” from 2017.

The paper reviews the sparse fossil record of pseudoscorpions, tiny arachnids first documented 390 million years ago. Most fossils are suspended in amber, preserving the specimens remarkably well. 

Research paper: Harms D, Dunlop JA (2017) The fossil history of pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones). Fossil Record 20(2): 215-238. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-20-215-2017 

First ship-timber beetle fossils from Eocene Rovno amber

Raractocetus sverlilo preserved in amber. Credit: Yamamoto et al.

With 21 citations, the 2022 paper “First fossil species of ship-timber beetles (Coleoptera, Lymexylidae) from Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine)” is a great example of a highly cited recent paper.

Asked about the success of his team’s research, corresponding author of the paper Evgeny Perkovsky said: “finding this beetle in the Eocene of Ukraine indicates a very specific fossil climate, which explains a high visibility of the paper.”

Research paper: Yamamoto S, Nazarenko VYu, Vasilenko DV, Perkovsky EE (2022) First fossil species of ship-timber beetles (Coleoptera, Lymexylidae) from Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine). Fossil Record 25(1): 65-74. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.81054 

The “accidentally discovered” ancient shark

The study attracted significant media attention.

Perhaps the most sensational publication in Fossil Record came when palaeontologist Jun Ebersole stumbled upon a 100-year-old box of teeth at the Geological Survey in Alabama, USA, which led to the discovery of a ‘new’ ancient shark species.

“A new species of Palaeohypotodus Glückman, 1964 (Chondrichthyes, Lamniformes) from the lower Paleocene (Danian) Porters Creek Formation, Wilcox County, Alabama, USA” was published in 2024 and attracted significant public and scientific attention.

New species of 65-million-year-old shark ‘accidentally’ discovered in Alabama

Describing the study, T. Lynn Harrell Jr., one of the authors said: “this time period is understudied, which makes the discovery of this new shark species that much more significant.

“Shark discoveries like this one give us tremendous insights into how ocean life recovers after major extinction events and also allows us to potentially forecast how global events, like climate change, affect marine life today.”

Research paper: Ebersole JA, Cicimurri DJ, Harrell Jr. TL (2024) A new species of Palaeohypotodus Glickman, 1964 (Chondrichthyes, Lamniformes) from the lower Paleocene (Danian) Porters Creek Formation, Wilcox County, Alabama, USA. Fossil Record 27(1): 111-134. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.27.e112800  

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As Fossil Record celebrates ten years of Open Access publishing, the future looks bright. Going forward, the journal hopes to expand the reach and impact of open-access palaeontology, connecting with both the scientific community and layman enthusiasts, and bringing exciting discoveries to all.

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Don’t forget to follow Fossil Record on X and Facebook, and subscribe for its newsletter from the journal’s website!

Follow the #openaccess_mfnberlin hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) to join the conversation around the anniversary!

10 years of Open Access: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and Pensoft celebrate a decade of partnership

By adopting Open Access in 2014, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) took an important step towards ensuring the research published in its journals can reach scientists, members of the public, and key decision-makers across borders. 

Beginning with the two oldest journals, Zoosystematics and Evolution (ZSE) and Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift (DEZ), Pensoft began publishing research on behalf of MfN a decade ago, utilising professional expertise and the cutting-edge digital publishing tools of the ARPHA platform to increase the visibility and engagement of the journals.

Now, ten years and another journal later, Pensoft and MfN celebrate a decade of Open Access collaboration and look back on many years of success.

Zoosystematics and Evolution

Zoosystematics and Evolution (ZSE) holds a prestigious place in the history of zoological science. Established in 1898 as Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin Zoologische Reihe, it is one of the oldest zoological journals in Europe and continues to publish exciting research to this day led by Editor-in-Chief Dr Thomas von Rintelen. 

The first Open Access issue of ZSE, published by Pensoft.

The journal’s 2014 transition to an open-access (OA) model under the publishing expertise of Pensoft marked the beginning of a new era, enhancing its global reach, accessibility, and influence.


A recent issue of ZSE, published by Pensoft.

Over the years, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, has covered entire article processing charges (APCs) for authors under specific terms. This support has lowered the barrier to publication for many researchers, particularly those from institutions or regions with limited funding, thus fostering a more inclusive and diverse authorship.

Brand new old journal

A decade of progress

The transition of Zoosystematics and Evolution to Open Access has increased the journal’s visibility and impact. The number of views and the level of publicity have surged, demonstrating the success of the move. The following graphs display how article submissions, publications and views have increased over the past decade:

Several standout papers have been published since the transition. The journal’s most popular article, “A new species of green pit vipers of the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède, 1804 (Reptilia, Serpentes, Viperidae) from western Arunachal Pradesh, India” has been viewed more than 47,000 times.

Two other highly popular articles, “The European medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis L.: Morphology and occurrence of an endangered species” and “Guide to image editing and production of figures for scientific publications with an emphasis on taxonomy”, have each garnered around 29,000 views.

The most cited article in the journal’s recent history, “Multigene analysis of the catfish genus Trichomycterus and description of a new South American trichomycterine genus (Siluriformes, Trichomycteridae)” has accumulated 58 citations.

Finally, growth in journal’s citation count and Clarivate Impact Factor reflect the progress that has been made in the past decade: 

An international community

Over the past decade, ZSE has increasingly attracted contributions from a global pool of researchers, reflecting the journal’s expanding international reputation. 

Top nationalities who have published in ZSE since 2014.

Leading the pack of the journal’s most prolific authors is Wilson Costa, who has authored 16 papers, followed by Axel Katz, Frank Glaw, Mark-Oliver Rödel, and Davut Turan, each with 11 papers. 

The journal’s editorial and review processes have also seen robust participation. Nicholas Hubert stands out as the most active editor, having handled 71 papers, with other prominent editors like Danilo Harms and Matthias Glaubrecht contributing significantly. The review process has been equally supported by dedicated reviewers such as Donald Taphorn and Felipe Ottoni, ensuring the maintenance of high academic standards.

Public engagement

The journal’s shift to Open Access has not only increased its academic reach but also its presence in news and social media. Since the journal moved to an OA model, numerous studies have attracted stories from major news publications such as the BBC and the Guardian.

ZSE has effectively utilised platforms like Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram to engage with a broader audience, including scientists, the general public, and unlikely collaborations like this recent post from Riot Games. 

Both social media and traditional media mentions of the journal continue to rise as can be seen in the graph below:

Looking ahead

As ZSE celebrates a decade of Open Access with Pensoft, the journal stands as a testament to the power of making scientific knowledge freely accessible. The past ten years have seen ZSE not only maintain its historic legacy, but adapt and thrive in the digital age. Moving forward, the journal is poised to continue its mission of advancing zoological science, supported by a growing international community of authors, editors, and readers.

A decade of Open Access: Zoosystematics and Evolution celebrates 10 years with Pensoft

“Zoosystematics and Evolution has come a long way since becoming an Open Access journal, transforming from a journal with a significant in-house focus, both regarding authors and the editorial board, to being highly diverse in both respects. Increasingly, the amazing increase in taxonomic expertise in the regions where it is most needed is reflected in the origin of those publishing their research in the journal. 

“I am glad and thankful for having been part of this transformation over the last five years and I as well as the whole editorial team are looking forward to further strengthen ZSE’s role as a sought-after platform for making taxonomic and systematic research freely available and visible over the next decade.”

Thomas von Rintelen, Editor-in-Chief.

Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift

Founded in 1857 as Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift (DEZ) is one of the world’s oldest international journals in systematic entomology. Published by Pensoft on behalf of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, it aims to advance understanding of the systematics and biology of insects. Since June 2023, the journal has been led by Editor-In-Chief Dr Matthias Seidel.

In 2014, in its 157th publishing year, the journal transitioned to an open-access (OA) model under the publishing expertise of Pensoft, thanks to which “the journal has opened up to scientists from all over the world employing the wide range of tools offered by the Pensoft platform,” as stated by Dr Dominique Zimmermann, the journal’s former Editor-in-Chief.

The first DEZ issue published by Pensoft.

The move to OA aligned with the journal’s long-standing commitment to fostering knowledge sharing and accessibility, going all the way back to DEZ’s founder, Ernst Gustav Kraatz, who was a fervent proponent of inclusive and facilitated access to knowledge.

A recent DEZ issue.

The partnership with Pensoft also provided next-generation technology and innovative tools for enhancing DEZ’s discoverability and reach.

The world’s 3rd oldest entomological journal Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift (DEZ) turns 160 years

The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin generously supports the publication of 300 pages in DEZ each year, meaning dozens of entomologists get to publish in the prestigious outlet for free. This policy offers extra support to authors from underfunded institutions or regions, and in general makes for a more diverse and inclusive range of contributors.

10 years together

The transition of DEZ to Open Access has increased the journal’s visibility and impact. There has been a notable rise in both viewership and overall exposure, highlighting the effectiveness of this change. The graphs below illustrate the growth in article submissions, publications, and views over the past ten years.

A reflection of this increase in visibility, the most popular DEZ article in this past 10 years is “Revision of Tropopterus Solier: A disjunct South American component of the Australo-Pacific Moriomorphini (Coleoptera, Carabidae)”, with over 33,000 views on the journal’s website.

Right behind it, with just under 33,000 views, is the book review of “Insect morphology and phylogeny” by the journal’s then-Editor-in-Chief Dominique Zimmermann and subject editor Susanne Randolf. 

The third most viewed article is “Cladistic classification of Mecyclothorax Sharp (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Moriomorphini) and taxonomic revision of the New Caledonian subgenus Phacothorax Jeannel” with almost 24,000 views.

The most cited article in the journal’s recent history, “A revolutionary protocol to describe understudied hyperdiverse taxa and overcome the taxonomic impediment” has accumulated 50 citations.

Since 2014, the journal’s Impact Factor has more than doubled, standing at 1.3 and making DEZ very attractive to amateur and academic entomologists.

Going global

Over the last ten years, DEZ has drawn more submissions from researchers worldwide, highlighting the journal’s growing recognition on an international scale.

Top nationalities who have published in DEZ since 2014.

The journal’s most productive author since 2014 is Ulrike Aspöck, who has authored nine papers. Her husband Horst Aspöck has authored eight, and Andrew Liston has authored seven.

DEZ’s scientific community also engages strongly with the journal’s editorial and review processes, contributing their expertise and insights to ensure the publication of high-quality peer-reviewed research. Dominique Zimmermann, with 52 manuscripts, is the most prolific editor, while Susanne Randolf is the most active reviewer, with 8 reviewed manuscripts.

Connecting with insect lovers

The journal’s transition to an Open Access model has expanded its visibility beyond academic reach. For the past 10 years, there have been 2,300 mentions of DEZ articles in mainstream and social media.

Mentions of Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift in both social and traditional media have been steadily increasing since it opened the access to its articles.

DEZ constantly reaches out to researchers and the wider community, maintaining a presence on social media platforms such as Twitter/X, Facebook, and Instagram, in an effort to highlight the importance of taxonomic research.

Eyes on the future

DEZ’s transition to an Open Access model under Pensoft in 2014 marked a significant milestone in its commitment to open science principles and knowledge dissemination. Going forward, DEZ aspires to continue upholding its high editorial standards, promoting rigorous research, and facilitating scientific exchange on a global scale. By embracing innovative technology, DEZ aims to remain a leading scholarly outlet for entomological research, fostering collaboration, transparency, and accessibility.

Celebrating 10 years of Open Access: Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift

Fossil Record

The youngest of MfN’s journals, Fossil Record was founded in 1998 under the name Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Geowissenschaftliche Reihe. The palaeontological journal, now led by Editor-in-Chief Florian Witzmann, followed ZSE and DEZ in 2022 by partnering with Pensoft in an open-access collaboration.

The publication of articles in Fossil Record is generously supported by funding from the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, who cover all article processing charges until their yearly budget is exhausted.

A new era

Since Fossil Record’s move to OA, the journal has enjoyed an increase in submissions, publicity and research impact.

A number of important papers have been published in the last decade, including “The geologically oldest specimen of Pterodactylus: a new exquisitely preserved skeleton from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Plattenkalk deposits of Painten (Bavaria, Germany).” The extraordinary imagery featured in the research paper attracted major interest from scientists and the public alike.

Pterodactylus antiquus from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Torleite Formation of Painten. Credit: Augustin et al.

Other interesting papers such as, “Ornithischian dinosaurs in Southeast Asia: a review with palaeobiogeographic implications” and “Fossil assemblage from the Khok Pha Suam locality of northeastern, Thailand: an overview of vertebrate diversity from the Early Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation (Aptian-Albian),” saw significant attention from the scientific community.

Fossil Record’s most cited paper, “The fossil history of pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones)” from 2017 has 42 citations, and a 2022 paper, “First fossil species of ship-timber beetles (Coleoptera, Lymexylidae) from Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine)” has accumulated 21 citations in just two years.

Like all of MfN’s journals, Fossil Record boasts a wealth of international authors and actively encourages researchers from underrepresented nations to consider them for publication.

Top nationalities who have published in Fossil Record since 2014.

Baring bones

Fossil Record’s Open Access model promotes the sharing of and engagement with interesting research featured in the journal.

Published in 2024, “A new species of Palaeohypotodus Glückman, 1964 (Chondrichthyes, Lamniformes) from the lower Paleocene (Danian) Porters Creek Formation, Wilcox County, Alabama, USA” was particularly successful in this regard, eliciting stories from The Independent and other major news sites.

New species of 65-million-year-old shark ‘accidentally’ discovered in Alabama

Using platforms such as Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram, the journal promotes attractive and important research to professionals and enthusiasts alike.

Fossil Record’s future

Fossil Record’s 2014 transition to Open Access reinforced the journal’s dedication to open science. Looking ahead, the journal is committed to maintaining its high editorial standards, encouraging robust research, and enhancing global scientific communication. By adopting cutting-edge technologies, Fossil Record seeks to remain a premier platform for paleontological studies, promoting collaboration, transparency, and greater accessibility.

Fossil Record celebrates its Open Access anniversary with Pensoft

“On the 10th anniversary of the Fossil Record’s Open Access, it is clear that the path we have taken has been a great success. Fossil Record is a firmly established name among the best palaeontological journals and is attracting more and more authors and readers from all parts of the world. It is to be hoped that the journal will continue on this path in the future and remain a guarantor of high scientific standards and free access to scientific knowledge.”

Florian Witzmann, Editor-in-Chief

The decade ahead

In celebrating a decade of Open Access partnership between Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and Pensoft, the success of this collaboration is evident across the three journals. 

Over the past ten years, the Open Access model has significantly increased the visibility, accessibility, and impact of research, fostering a more inclusive and international scientific community. As these journals continue to thrive, they remain committed to advancing knowledge sharing, scientific integrity, and global collaboration, ensuring a bright future for open-access publishing in their fields.

“We are proud to commit to the advancement of biodiversity research by providing open access to our journals. We believe that freely available scientific knowledge is crucial for fulfilling our vision to develop an open knowledge infrastructure for nature that promotes multi-perspective thinking and action. This includes awareness-raising work, infrastructure and services provision for researchers as central tasks of the Coordination Office for Scientific Publishing. I would like to thank Stefanie Paß and Clara Schindler from the Coordination Office, who work with great commitment and passion to promote open access and advance the journals as a research-oriented service that will be expanded even further in the future in order to extend its impact.”

Dr Frederik Berger, Head of Service & Impact Collection Future, MfN

“Back in 2014, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin became the first natural history institution to trust us with the publication of its very own journals as they moved to Open Access. Needless to say, as an open-access-born publisher whose roots lie in the science of natural history, this was a great honour, and we are delighted with its flourishing ever since. As much as we enjoy reflecting on what we have achieved together, we already have our eyes set on building on our partnership and sharing lots of novel discoveries and quality research with the wide world!” 

Prof Dr Lyubomir Penev, founder and CEO of Pensoft.

Follow the #openaccess_mfnberlin hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) to join the conversation around the anniversary!

New species of 65-million-year-old shark ‘accidentally’ discovered in Alabama

The shark lived shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs, and was discovered from a box of teeth collected over 100 years ago.

A new species of shark, which lived shortly after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, was discovered when palaeontologist Jun Ebersole came across a 100-year-old box of teeth at the Geological Survey in Alabama, USA.

“Having documented hundreds of fossil fish species over the last decade, I found it puzzling that these teeth were from a shark that I didn’t recognise,” says Ebersole, Director of Collections, McWane Science Center, Birmingham, AL, who quickly realised the teeth belong to a new species.

New shark species tooth.
Palaeohypotodus bizzocoi tooth. Credit: McWane Science Center.

The team, consisting of Ebersole, David Cicimurri, Curator of Natural History, South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, and T. Lynn Harrell Jr., Palaeontologist and Fossil Collections Curator at the Geological Survey of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, published their discovery in the open-access journal Fossil Record.

The shark is a new species of Palaeohypotodus (pronounced pale-ee-oh-hype-oh-toe-duss), which means “ancient small-eared tooth,” in reference to the small needle-like fangs present on the sides of the teeth. Scientists believe it may have looked like a modern sand tiger shark.

Moder sand tiger shark.
Modern sand tiger. Credit: Wikimedia commons.

Living approximately 65-million-years ago in the Paleocene era, Palaeohypotodus bizzocoi was likely a leading predator as the oceans recovered following the death of the dinosaurs, when more than 75% of life on Earth went extinct.

In Alabama, much of the southern half of the state was covered by a shallow tropical to sub-tropical ocean during the Paleocene.

New shark species teeth.
Palaeohypotodus bizzocoi teeth. Credit: Ebersole et al.

“This time period is understudied, which makes the discovery of this new shark species that much more significant,” Harrell says. “Shark discoveries like this one give us tremendous insights into how ocean life recovers after major extinction events and also allows us to potentially forecast how global events, like climate change, affect marine life today.”

As part of their study of this ancient fish, the team compared the fossil teeth to those of various living sharks, like Great Whites and Makos. According to Cicimurri, shark teeth differ in shape depending on where they are located in the mouth.

“By studying the jaws and teeth of living sharks, it allowed us to reconstruct the dentition of this ancient species and showed that it had a tooth arrangement that differed from any living shark,” Cicimurri says.

Dr. Bruce Bizzoco.
The late Dr. Bruce Bizzoco (1949-2022), for whom the new species is named.
Credit: McWane Science Center.

The new species has been named Palaeohypotodus bizzocoi for the late Dr. Bruce Bizzoco (1949-2022) of Birmingham, AL. Bizzoco served as a Dean at Shelton State Community College, archaeologist, and was a long-time volunteer at McWane Science Center.

This discovery is part of an ongoing project led by Ebersole and Cicimurri to document Alabama’s fossil fishes. Together, they have confirmed over 400 unique species of fossil sharks and bony fishes, which, according to Ebersole, makes Alabama one of the richest places in the world in terms of fossil fish diversity.

Research paper

Ebersole JA, Cicimurri DJ, Harrell Jr. TL (2024) A new species of Palaeohypotodus Glickman, 1964 (Chondrichthyes, Lamniformes) from the lower Paleocene (Danian) Porters Creek Formation, Wilcox County, Alabama, USA. Fossil Record 27(1): 111-134. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.27.e112800

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Conferences across the continents: Pensoft’s events in Autumn 2023

Pensoft participated in several events all around the world in October and November 2023.

October and November 2023 were active months for the Pensoft team, who represented the publisher’s journals and projects at conferences in Europe, North America, South America, Oceania and Asia.

Let’s take a look back at all the events of the past two months.

The Biodiversity Information Standards Conference 2023

The Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Conference, held from October 9-13 in Tasmania, Australia, brought together experts and stakeholders from the global biodiversity research community.

The annual gathering is a crucial platform for sharing insights, innovations, and knowledge related to biodiversity data standards and practices. Key figures from Pensoft took part in the event, presenting new ways to improve the management, accessibility, and usability of biodiversity data. 

Prof. Lyubomir Penev, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pensoft, gave two talks that highlighted the importance of data publishing. His presentation on “The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH): A Crosspoint and Knowledge Broker for FAIR and Linked Biodiversity Data” underscored the significance of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data standards. BKH is the major output from the Horizon 2020 project BiCIKL (Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library) dedicated to linked and FAIR data in biodiversity, and coordinated by Pensoft.

Prof. Lyubomir Penev, Pensoft founder and CEO.

He also introduced the Nanopublications for Biodiversity workflow and format: a promising new tool developed by Knowledge Pixels and Pensoft to communicate key scientific statements in a way that is human-readable, machine-actionable, and in line with FAIR principles. Earlier this year, Biodiversity Data Journal integrated nanopublications into its workflow to allow authors to share their findings even more efficiently.

Chief Technology Officer of Pensoft Teodor Georgiev contributed to the conference by presenting “OpenBiodiv for Users: Applications and Approaches to Explore a Biodiversity Knowledge Graph.” His session highlighted the innovative approaches being taken to explore and leverage a biodiversity knowledge graph, showcasing the importance of technology in advancing biodiversity research.

Teodor Georgiev (right), Pensoft CTO.

Many authors and editors at Biodiversity Data Journal also spoke at the TDWG conference, including Vince Smith, the journal’s editor-in-chief, who is Head of Digital, Data, and Informatics at the Natural History Museum. He delivered insightful presentations on digitising natural science collections and utilising AI for insect collections.

GEO BON Global Conference 2023

GEO BON’s Global Conference on Biodiversity and Monitoring took place from 10-13 October 2023 in Montreal, Canada.

Metabarcoding and Metagenomics editor-in-chief, Florian Leese.

The theme of the conference was “Monitoring Biodiversity for Action” and there was particular emphasis on the development of best practices and new technologies for biodiversity observations and monitoring to support transformative policy and conservation action.

Metabarcoding & Metagenomics’ editor-in-chief, Florian Leese, was one of the organisers of the “Standardized eDNA-Based Biodiversity Monitoring to Inform Environmental Stewardship Programs” session. Furthermore, the journal was represented at Pensoft’s exhibition booth, where conference participants were able to discuss metabarcoding and metagenomics research.

Following the conference, Metabarcoding & Metagenomics announced a new special issue titled “Towards Standardized Molecular Biodiversity Monitoring.” The special issue is accepting submissions until 15th March 2024.

Asian Mycological Congress 2023

The Asian Mycological Congress welcomed researchers from around the world to Busan, Republic of Korea, for an exploration of all things fungi from 10-13 October. 

MycoKeys Best Talk award (winner not pictured).

Titled “Fungal World and Its Bioexploitation – in all areas of basic and applied mycology,” the conference covered a range of topics related to all theoretical and practical aspects of mycology. There was a particular emphasis on the development of mycology through various activities associated with mycological education, training, research, and service in countries and regions within Asia.

As one of the sponsors of the congress, Pensoft proudly presented a Best Talk award to Dr Sinang Hongsanan of Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The award entitles the winner to a free publication in Pensoft’s flagship mycology journal, MycoKeys.

Joint ESENIAS and DIAS Scientific Conference 2023

The ESENIAS and DIAS conference took place from 11-14 October and focused on “globalisation and invasive alien species in the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions.” Pensoft shared information on their NeoBiota journal and the important REST-COAST and B-Cubed projects.

Polina Nikova receiving the NeoBiota Best Talk Award.

Polina Nikova of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences received the NeoBiota Best Talk Award for her presentation titled “First documented records in the wild of American mink (Neogale vision von Schreber, 1776) in Bulgaria.” The award entitles her to a free publication in the NeoBiota journal.

XII European Congress of Entomology

Pensoft took part in the XII European Congress of Entomology (ECE 2023) in Heraklion, Crete, from 16-20 October. The event provided a forum for entomologists from all over the world, bringing together over 900 scientists from 60 countries.

Carla Stoyanova, Teodor Metodiev and Boriana Ovcharova representing Pensoft.

The ECE 2023, organised by the Hellenic Entomological Society, addressed the pressing challenges facing entomology, including climate change, vector-borne diseases, biodiversity loss, and the need to sustainably feed a growing world population. The program featured symposia, lectures, poster sessions, and other types of activities aimed at fostering innovation in entomology. For Pensoft, they were a great opportunity to interact with scientists and share their commitment to advancing entomological research and addressing the critical challenges in the field.

Throughout the event, conference participants could find Pensoft’s team at thir booth, and learn more about the scholarly publisher’s open-access journals in entomology. In addition, the Pensoft team presented the latest outcomes from the Horizon 2020 projects B-GOOD, Safeguard, and PoshBee, where the publisher takes care of science communication and dissemination as a partner.

XIV International Congress of Orthopterology 2023

The XIV International Congress of Orthopterology, held from 16-19 October in Mérida, Yucatán, México, was a landmark event in the field of orthopterology.

Group photo of XIV International Congress of Orthopterology 2023 participants.

Hosted for the first time in Mexico, it attracted experts and enthusiasts from around the world. The congress featured plenary speakers who presented cutting-edge research and insights on various aspects of grasshoppers, crickets, and related insects.

Pensoft’s Journal of Orthoptera Research was represented by Tony Robillard, the editor-in-chief, who presented the latest developments of the journal to attendees.

Symposia, workshops, and meetings facilitated discussions on topics like climate change impacts, conservation, and management of Orthoptera. The event also included introductions to new digital and geospatial tools for Orthoptera research.

The 16th International Conference on Ecology and Management of Alien Plant Invasions

The 16th International Conference on Ecology and Management of Alien Plant Invasions (EMAPI 2023) took place in Pucón, Chile, from 23-25 October . The conference focused on the promotion of diversity in the science and management of biological invasions. Several NeoBiota authors ran sessions at the conference, and the journal also presented a Best Talk Award.

4th International ESP Latin America and Caribbean Conference

The 4th International ESP Latin America and Caribbean Conference (ESP LAC 2023) was held in La Serena, Chile, from 6-10 November. Focused on “Sharing knowledge about ecosystem services and natural capital to build a sustainable future,” the event attracted experts in ecosystem services, particularly from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Organised by the Ecosystem Services Partnership, this bi-annual conference was open to both ESP members and non-members, featuring a hybrid format in English and Spanish. Attendees enjoyed an excursion to La Serena’s historical center, adding a cultural dimension to the event.

The conference included diverse sessions and a special recognition by Pensoft’s One Ecosystem journal, which awarded full waivers for publication to the authors of the three best posters.

Magaly Aldave receiving the Best Poster Award.

Magaly Aldave of the Transdisciplinary Center for FES-Systemic Studies claimed first prize with “The voice of children in the conservation of the urban wetland and Ramsar Site Pantanos de Villa in Metropolitan Lima, Peru.” Ana Catalina Copier Guerrero and Gabriela Mallea-Rebolledo, both of the University of Chile, were awarded second and third prize respectively.

Biosystematics 2023

Biosystematics 2023, held from 26-30 November at the Australian National University in Canberra, was a collaborative effort of the Australian Biological Resources Study, Society of Australian Systematic Biologists, Australasian Mycological Society, and Australasian Systematic Botany Society. Themed “Celebrating the Past | Planning the Future,” the conference provided a platform for exploring advancements in biosystematics.

The event featured in-person and online participation, catering to a wide audience of researchers, academics, and students. It included workshops, presentations, and discussions, with a focus on enhancing understanding in biosystematics.

Pensoft awarded three student prizes at the event. Putter Tiatragu, Australian National University, received the Best Student Talk award and a free publication in any Pensoft journal for “A big burst of blindsnakes: Phylogenomics and historical biogeography of Australia’s most species-rich snake genus.”

Helen Armstrong, Murdoch University, received the Best Student Lightning Talk for “An enigmatic snapper parasite (Trematoda: Cryptogonimidae) found in an unexpected host.” Patricia Chan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, was the Best Student Lightning Talk runner-up for “Drivers of Diversity of Darwinia’s Common Scents and Inflorescences with Style: Phylogenomics, Pollination Biology, and Floral Chemical Ecology of Western Australian Darwinia (Myrtaceae).”

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As we approach the end of 2023, Pensoft looks back on its most prolific and meaningful year of conferences and events. Thank you to everyone who contributed to or engaged with Pensoft’s open-access journals, and here’s to another year of attending events, rewarding important research, and connecting with the scientific community.

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Science in the sunshine: Pensoft’s month of European conferences

Pensoft participated in five conferences across Germany and Italy in September 2023.

For the Pensoft team, September 2023 was a busy and exciting month filled with conferences. Travelling across Europe, they promoted journals, connected with the scientific community, and rewarded exceptional research with free article publications. 

Let’s take a look back at all the events of the past month.

Wildlife Research and Conservation 2023

Wildlife Research and Conservation 2023 took place in Berlin between the 9th and 11th of September. Jointly organised by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria and WWF Germany, it was a fantastic event, featuring an exchange of ideas between wildlife scientists from different disciplines related to mammalian species.

Image showing the WRC2023 logo and two women promoting Pensoft at a conference.
Pensoft representatives Mrs. Boriana Ovcharova and Mrs. Anna Sapundzhieva, ready to greet attendees in the sun.

The conference looked at evolutionary adaptations from the perspective of behavioural ecology, reproduction biology, genetics, physiology, as well as nature conservation. It particularly focused on the pressing issues of wildlife research and species conservation in the context of global environmental change. Most of the ≈100 participants were young scientists from more than 30 countries.

The Pensoft team greeted fellow attendees with an exhibition stand and presented the conservation and ecology-focused journals Neobiota, Nature Conservation, One Ecosystem, and Biodiversity Data Journal. Pensoft also advocated for EuropaBon, who are designing an EU-wide framework for monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, and REST-COAST, whose mission is to provide the tools to restore environmental degradation of rivers and coasts. Within both European-funded initiatives, Pensoft is a key dissemination partner that contributes expertise in science communication, scholarly publishing, and the development of digital tools and platforms.

Man holding a certificate.
Joao Pedro Meireles posing with his Best Poster award.

Pensoft presented Joao Pedro Meireles from Utrecht University with the Best Poster Award for his research on pair compatibility in okapis, entitling him to a free publication in one of Pensoft’s open-access journals.

“My study looked at pair compatibility in the zoo breeding programme of Okapi. During breeding introductions, sometimes the male becomes aggressive towards the female and we decided to investigate the potential factors. We ran a survey among all zoos that house the species in Europe and we found that differences in husbandry were linked to the aggressiveness performed by the males.”

Joao Pedro Meireles, Utrecht University

GfÖ Annual Meeting 2023

From the 12th to 16th of September, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research hosted the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in Leipzig, Germany. The meeting welcomed more than 1,100 participants from around the world, including scientists, policymakers, educators, and environmental enthusiasts.

This year’s meeting was held with the theme: “The future of biodiversity – overcoming barriers of taxa, realms and scales.” There was a particular emphasis on future challenges and opportunities facing biodiversity, and how to address and manage these in an interdisciplinary and integrative way. 

Woman standing beside man.
Mrs. Boriana Ovcharova (Pensoft) with Neobiota Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Ingolf Kühn.

Conference participants were welcomed at the Pensoft stand, where they could learn more about the projects EuropaBon and SELINA, which deal with biodiversity, ecosystem and natural capital topics. 

The Pensoft team took great pleasure in talking to attendees about their fantastic journals focused on ecology and biodiversity, including Food and Ecological Systems Modelling Journal, Neobiota, Nature Conservation, One Ecosystem, Vegetation Classification and Survey and Research Ideas and Outcomes, as well as meeting with authors, reviewers and editors.

European Conference on Ecological Modelling

Also in Leipzig, the European Conference on Ecological Modelling took place between the 4th and 8th of September. The event focused on the transformation of how societies deal with natural resources in a world where biodiversity and ecosystem services are at high risk. 

The ECEM 2023 continued a series of conferences launched by the European chapter of ISEM, the International Society for Ecological Modelling. ISEM promotes the international exchange of ideas, scientific results, and general knowledge in the areas of systems’ analysis and simulations in ecology, and the application of ecological modelling for natural resource management.

Pensoft presented its innovative journals in the field of ecology and modelling, such as Nature Conservation, Food and Ecological Systems Modelling Journal and Neobiota, as well as the projects PoshBee and B-GOOD, which aim to help beekeepers and support healthy bee populations where Pensoft acts as the dissemination partner.

The Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung team presented a poster on the Formal Model format and potential new MiDox formats, unique publication types that can be submitted to Pensoft’s Food and Ecological Modelling Journal.

118th Congress of the Italian Botanical Society

Three men sitting before a projector screen at a conference.
Speakers at the 118th Congress of the Italian Botanical Society.

Pensoft was proud to sponsor the 118th Congress of the Italian Botanical Society, which took place in Pisa, Italy from the 13th to 16th of September. Experts in various fields of Botany gathered to share their research on the following topics:

  • Molecular and cell biology
  • Taxonomy, systematics and evolution
  • Biodiversity
  • Environmental monitoring and policies
  • Biotechnology and applied botany
  • Ecology

Pensoft awarded Emma Cocco, University of Cagliari, and Lucrezia Laccetti, University of Naples Federico II, a free article publication in any of Pensoft’s journals related to botany.  Additionally, Silvia Cannucci, University of Siena, and Flavia Guzzi received the Italian Botanical Society’s support for publishing papers in Italian Botanist for their excellent research.

Four people at a certificate presentation.
Best poster award, presented by Pensoft.

94th Annual Meeting of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft

Finally, between the 18th and 22nd of September, the 94th Annual Meeting of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft was held in Jena, Germany. Pensoft couldn’t make it in person, but still made sure to showcase journals publishing papers in palaeontology, especially Zitteliana and Fossil Record. The international meeting was a great success, and focused on cutting-edge research from palaeobiology, palaeontology, geobiology and related subjects.

Journals promoted by Pensoft at the 94th Annual Meeting of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft.

Summer may be well and truly over, but as a new academic year begins, Pensoft looks forward to attending more conferences, rewarding more incredible research, and connecting with more of the scientific community. Thank you to everyone who contributed to or engaged with Pensoft’s open-access journals this year, and here’s to a successful final quarter of 2023.

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Europe’s very own dinosaurs – the enigmatic Late Cretaceous rhabdodontids

Despite being widespread and abundant, these gregarious herbivores vanished in Western Europe around 69 million years ago due to environmental changes, while surviving longer in Eastern Europe.

When you think of dinosaurs, you might automatically imagine iconic dinosaurs as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. But at the same time when these were stomping on the ancient coastal plains of North America, some of their very distant cousins were reigning over Europe’s lands.

Life reconstructions and size comparison of three rhabdodontids. From left to right: Mochlodon suessi from eastern Austria (the smallest member of the group), Rhabdodon priscus from southern France (the largest member of the group), and Transylvanosaurus platycephalus from western Romania (the most recently named member of the group). Also shown is the silhoutte of a human (1.8 m tall) for scale. Reconstruction by Peter Nickolaus

During the Late Cretaceous (between 100 and 66 million years ago), Europe was an extensive archipelago with numerous small and large islands situated in a shallow tropical sea, the so-called Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. The dinosaur groups that lived on these islands were very different from those of other continents, often being much smaller than their mainland relatives. These European dinosaurs include small and medium-sized carnivorous theropods, armoured ankylosaurs, long-necked sauropods, duck-billed hadrosaurs, and rhabdodontids.

Skeletal reconstruction of Zalmoxes robustus. Scale bar: 20 cm

Arguably one of the most important of these European dinosaur groups is the family Rhabdodontidae, which groups together the most common medium-sized herbivores of the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. A joint research team from the Universities of Tübingen (Germany), Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania) recently reviewed what we know about these peculiar dinosaurs in a new paper published in the journal Fossil Record.

Generally, rhabdodontid dinosaurs were small to medium-sized animals with an overall body length of approximately 2–6 m. “They were probably habitually bipedal herbivores, characterised by a rather stocky build, with strong hind limbs, short forelimbs, a long tail, and a comparatively large, triangular skull that tapers anteriorly and ends in a narrow snout,” explains Felix Augustin, lead author of the study in Fossil Record.

“They had a relatively robust skull with strong jaws, large teeth and a pointy beak that was covered in keratin, demonstrating that these dinosaurs were well-adapted to eating tough plants.”

In some instances, fossil remains of several individuals of different ages have been found together, indicating that they were gregarious.

Although they died out well before the mass extinction in Western Europe (about 69 million years ago), potentially due to environmental changes that affected the plants they fed on, they survived much longer in Eastern Europe and were among the last non-avian dinosaurs still present before the end of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago).

Interestingly, fossils of rhabdodontids have only been found in Europe and only in rocks ranging in age from 86–66 million years ago, so they were endemic to the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago.

The group currently comprises nine different species from five European countries (France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, and Romania).

Palaeogeographic map of Europe during the latest Cretaceous (late Campanian), with the location of the most important rhabdodontid-bearing assemblages. 1 Transylvania, western Romania. 2 Iharkút, western Hungary. 3 Muthmannsdorf, eastern Austria. 4 Eastern southern France. 5 Western southern France. 6 Northern Spain. 7 Central Spain.

“The first rhabdodontid species was scientifically named more than 150 years ago and the last one as recently as November 2022, so, although the group looks back to a long research history, we still have much to learn about it,” says Felix Augustin.

“Generally, our portraying of the world of dinosaurs is heavily biased towards the well-known North-American and Asian dinosaur faunas,” he adds.

Type specimens of some rhabdodontid species. A. The original drawing of the lectotype of Rhabdodon priscus, MPLM 30, a partial left dentary. The specimen has since deteriorated (Pincemaille-Quillevere 2002). Modified after Matheron (1869). B. Holotype of Rhabdodon septimanicus, MDE D-30, an incomplete right dentary. Photo kindly provided by Eric Buffetaut. C. Lectotype of Mochlodon suessi, PIUW 2349/2, a right dentary. D. Holotype of Mochlodon vorosi, MTM V 2010.105.1, a left dentary. E. Holotype of Zalmoxes robustus, NHMUK R.3392, a right dentary. Photo kindly provided by János Magyar. F. Holotype right dentary of Zalmoxes shqiperorum, NHMUK R.4900. Note that the holotype of Z. shqiperorum also comprises several postcranial elements that presumably belong to the same individual as the dentary. Photo kindly provided by János Magyar.

Dinosaur fossils from the Late Cretaceous are much rarer in Europe than in North America or Asia, and thus far no complete skeleton of a rhabdodontid has been described. Even though they were so abundant and common in the Upper Cretaceous of Europe, several key aspects about them remain poorly known, including their detailed body proportions, their posture and locomotion, as well as their feeding behaviour.

“In the past decades, a wealth of new, and often well-preserved, rhabdodontid fossils has been discovered throughout Europe, the majority of which still remains to be studied,” says Felix Augustin. “A joint research project is currently underway to study the available fossil material in order to gain new insights into the evolution and lifestyle of these fascinating yet still poorly known dinosaurs.”

Original source:

Augustin FJ, Ősi A, Csiki-Sava Z (2023) The Rhabdodontidae (Dinosauria, Ornithischia), an enigmatic dinosaur group endemic to the Late Cretaceous European Archipelago. Fossil Record 26(2): 171-189. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.26.108967

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Pensoft among the first 27 publishers to share prices & services via the Journal Comparison Service by Plan S

All journals published by Pensoft – each using the publisher’s self-developed ARPHA Platform – provide extensive and transparent information about their costs and services in line with the Plan S principles.

In support of transparency and openness in scholarly publishing and academia, the scientific publisher and technology provider Pensoft joined the Journal Comparison Service (JCS) initiative by cOAlition S, an alliance of national funders and charitable bodies working to increase the volume of free-to-read research. 

As a result, all journals published by Pensoft – each using the publisher’s self-developed ARPHA Platform – provide extensive and transparent information about their costs and services in line with the Plan S principles.

The JCS was launched to aid libraries and library consortia – the ones negotiating and participating in Open Access agreements with publishers – by providing them with everything they need to know in order to determine whether the prices charged by a certain journal are fair and corresponding to the quality of the service. 

According to cOAlition S, an increasing number of libraries and library consortia from Europe, Africa, North America, and Australia have registered with the JCS over the past year since the launch of the portal in September 2021.

While access to the JCS is only open to librarians, individual researchers may also make use of the data provided by the participating publishers and their journals. 

This is possible through an integration with the Journal Checker Tool, where researchers can simply enter the name of the journal of interest, their funder and affiliation (if applicable) to check whether the scholarly outlet complies with the Open Access policy of the author’s funder. A full list of all academic titles that provide data to the JCS is also publicly available. By being on the list means a journal and its publisher do not only support cOAlition S, but they also demonstrate that they stand for openness and transparency in scholarly publishing.

“We are delighted that Pensoft, along with a number of other publishers, have shared their price and service data through the Journal Comparison Service. Not only are such publishers demonstrating their commitment to open business models and cultures but are also helping to build understanding and trust within the research community.”

said Robert Kiley, Head of Strategy at cOAlition S. 

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About cOAlition S:

On 4 September 2018, a group of national research funding organisations, with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC), announced the launch of cOAlition S, an initiative to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality. It is built around Plan S, which consists of one target and 10 principles. Read more on the cOAlition S website.

About Plan S:

Plan S is an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018. The plan is supported by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing organisations. Plan S requires that, from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms. Read more on the cOAlition S website.

Oldest Pterodactylus fossil found in Germany

The fossil, just described in a study in the journal Fossil Record, is about one million years older than other Pterodactylus specimens.

Pterosaurs, the flying reptiles of the dinosaur era, originated in the Late Triassic (227 million years ago) and became extinct at the end-Cretaceous extinction event (66 million years ago). With wing spans ranging from 1 to 12 meters, they dominated the world’s skies for more than 160 million years.

The first described and named pterosaur – and namesake of the whole group – is Pterodactylus from the famous Solnhofen Limestone of Bavaria, southern Germany. Originally described in 1784 by the Italian naturalist Cosimo Alessandro Collini, the fossil was considered to be an aquatic animal for 25 years, before Georges Cuvier found out it was a flying reptile belonging to a new, previously unrecognized group.

The oldest specimen of this iconic pterosaur was recently found near Painten, a small town in the southern part of the Franconian Alb in central Bavaria. The fossil, described in a study in the journal Fossil Record, is about one million years older than other Pterodactylus specimens.

The specimen was unearthed in 2014 during excavations in an active limestone quarry. It took more than 120 hours of meticulous mechanical work using pneumatic tools and needles before the researchers could study it. The research team behind the discovery are Felix Augustin, Andreas Matzke, Panagiotis Kampouridis and Josephina Hartung from the University of Tübingen (Germany) and Raimund Albersdörfer from the Dinosaurier Museum Altmühltal (Germany).

“The rocks of the quarry, which yielded the new Pterodactylus specimen, consist of silicified limestone that has been dated to the upper Kimmeridgian stage (around 152 million years ago)”, explains Felix Augustin of the University of Tübingen, who is the lead author of the study. “Previously, Pterodactylus had only been found in younger rocks of southern Germany belonging to the Tithonian stage that follows after the Kimmeridgian”.

The specimen is a complete, well-preserved skeleton of a small-sized individual. “Only a very small portion of the left mandible as well as of the left and right tibia is missing. Otherwise, the skeleton is nearly perfectly preserved with every bone present and in its roughly correct anatomical position”, the researchers write in their study.

With a 5-cm-long skull, the Painten Pterodactylus represents a rare “sub-adult” individual. “Generally, the Pterodactylus specimens are not evenly distributed across the full size range but predominantly fall into distinct size-classes that are separated by marked gaps. The specimen from Painten is a rare representative of the first gap between the small and large sizes,” explains Augustin. “The Painten Pterodactylus was of an intermediate, and rarely found, ontogenetic age at the time of its death, between two consecutive year-classes.”

The Painten quarry has yielded many other “exquisitely preserved fossils”, including ichthyosaurs, turtles, marine and terrestrial crocodile-relatives, and dinosaurs.  Many of them, like this new pterosaur specimen, are on display in the new Dinosaurier Museum Altmühltal in Denkendorf (Bavaria, Germany).

Research article:

Augustin FJ, Kampouridis P, Hartung J, Albersdörfer R, Matzke AT (2022) The geologically oldest specimen of Pterodactylus: a new exquisitely preserved skeleton from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Plattenkalk deposits of Painten (Bavaria, Germany). Fossil Record 25(2): 331-343. https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.90692

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Pensoft’s ARPHA Publishing Platform integrates with OA Switchboard to streamline reporting to funders of open research

By the time authors open their inboxes to the message their work is online, a similar notification will have also reached their research funder.

Image credit: OA Switchboard.

By the time authors – who have acknowledged third-party financial support in their research papers submitted to a journal using the Pensoft-developed publishing platform: ARPHA – open their inboxes to the congratulatory message that their work has just been published and made available to the wide world, a similar notification will have also reached their research funder.

This automated workflow is already in effect at all journals (co-)published by Pensoft and those published under their own imprint on the ARPHA Platform, as a result of the new partnership with the OA Switchboard: a community-driven initiative with the mission to serve as a central information exchange hub between stakeholders about open access publications, while making things simpler for everyone involved.

All the submitting author needs to do to ensure that their research funder receives a notification about the publication is to select the supporting agency or the scientific project (e.g. a project supported by Horizon Europe) in the manuscript submission form, using a handy drop-down menu. In either case, the message will be sent to the funding body as soon as the paper is published in the respective journal.

“At Pensoft, we are delighted to announce our integration with the OA Switchboard, as this workflow is yet another excellent practice in scholarly publishing that supports transparency in research. Needless to say, funding and financing are cornerstones in scientific work and scholarship, so it is equally important to ensure funding bodies are provided with full, prompt and convenient reports about their own input.”

comments Prof Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft and ARPHA.

 

“Research funders are one of the three key stakeholder groups in OA Switchboard and are represented in our founding partners. They seek support in demonstrating the extent and impact of their research funding and delivering on their commitment to OA. It is great to see Pensoft has started their integration with OA Switchboard with a focus on this specific group, fulfilling an important need,”

adds Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director of the OA Switchboard.

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About the OA Switchboard:

A global not-for-profit and independent intermediary established in 2020, the OA Switchboard provides a central hub for research funders, institutions and publishers to exchange OA-related publication-level information. Connecting parties and systems, and streamlining communication and the neutral exchange of metadata, the OA Switchboard provides direct, indirect and community benefits: simplicity and transparency, collaboration and interoperability, and efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

About Pensoft:

Pensoft is an independent academic publishing company, well known worldwide for its novel cutting-edge publishing tools, workflows and methods for text and data publishing of journals, books and conference materials.

All journals (co-)published by Pensoft are hosted on Pensoft’s full-featured ARPHA Publishing Platform and published in a way that ensures their content is as FAIR as possible, meaning that it is effortlessly readable, discoverable, harvestable, citable and reusable by both humans and machines.

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