Category: Neobiota

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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Now, to keep up with our next steps in real time, we invite you to follow Pensoft on social media on BlueSky, X, Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin! 

Don’t forget to also enter your email to the right to sign up for new content from this blog!

New Editors-in-Chief join the lead at invasion science journal NeoBiota

Dr. Ana Novoa Perez, Prof. Tammy Robinson, Prof. Phil Hulme and Dr. Andrew (“Sandy”) Liebhold will join forces to bring a wealth of expertise to NeoBiota.

NeoBiota, a leading peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to the study of alien species and biological invasions, announces the appointment of new Editors-in-Chief. 

The new leadership team sees Dr. Ana Novoa Perez, Prof. Tammy Robinson, Prof. Phil Hulme and Dr. Andrew (“Sandy”) Liebhold join forces to bring a wealth of expertise to NeoBiota. 

They have already begun working in close collaboration with Prof. Ingolf Kühn, who has been serving as Editor-in-Chief ever since the journal was founded in 2011. Throughout these years, he has played a pivotal role in establishing NeoBiota as a leading platform for invasion science, contributing to the journal’s growth and impact. 

Cover of The economic costs of biological invasions around the world, one of NeoBiota’s most successful special issues

“After more than 13 years, I thought that it was time to hand the responsibilities for NeoBiota over to dedicated colleagues. We thought of our dream team, and fortunately, all agreed without hesitation.”

Covering both an extensive range of invasion science fields and a wide international representation, this diverse editorial team will be looking to maintain NeoBiota‘s reputation as a leading outlet in its field and expand its global reach and impact.

Today, NeoBiota is one of the most prominent open-access journals in biological invasions, with a Journal Impact Factor of 3.8 and a Scopus CiteScore of 8.1 for 2023. Currently, the journal ranks 11th in the Biodiversity Conservation category on Web of Science and 9th in the Ecological Modelling category on Scopus.

Meet the editors

Dr. Ana Novoa is a scientist at the Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EEZA-CSIC) in Spain and the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Her research explores the socioecological factors influencing the invasion and management of alien species, with a particular interest in the human and social dimensions of biological invasions. She is also Secretary of the European Group on Biological Invasions (NEOBIOTA).

“I’m honored to collaborate with Ingolf, Tammy, Phil and Sandy in guiding the journal forward,” said Ana. “I look forward to supporting innovative research across the diverse aspects of invasion science.”

Prof. Tammy Robinson holds a Research Chair at the Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is a marine invasion biologist with an ecological background, an interest in evidence-based management of alien species, and a focus on protected areas. She is an associate member of INVASIVESNET, the global network of networks on invasive species. 

“I’m really excited about joining this dynamic team,” said Tammy. “I’m looking forward to fostering an increase in the number of aquatic papers that appear in NeoBiota.”

Prof. Philip Hulme is a Distinguished Professor of Plant Biosecurity at Lincoln University, New Zealand, and Director of the Centre for One Biosecurity Research, Analysis and Synthesis (COBRAS). His research focuses on predicting risks associated with plant invasions, examining traits of successful invasive species, identifying introduction pathways, assessing spread rates, evaluating habitat vulnerability, quantifying impacts, and predicting the influence of climate change on invasive species distributions. His work also includes broader assessments of biosecurity policy and implementation across the human, animal, plant and ecosystem sectors, emphasizing human perspectives, such as trade and economic impacts. Having authored, reviewed, and edited numerous papers in NeoBiota, he was also one of the people behind the journal’s foundation.

“Having been involved with the journal since its foundation it is a real pleasure to have the opportunity to shape its future and continue the amazing work Ingolf has undertaken to ensure NeoBiota is THE leading biological invasions journal in the world”.

Dr. Andrew “Sandy” Liebhold is a lead scientist with the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, where he directs The Forest Risk Research Centre. He is also a Scientist Emeritus with the U.S. Forest Service. His research focuses on the macroecology, population ecology, community ecology, and management of insect invasions. He has received numerous awards, including the IUFRO Scientific Achievement Award and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Entomological Society of America. 

“I am excited about being part of the NeoBiota editorial team and look forward to working with my colleagues to continue the journal’s high level of excellence and advance the field of invasion biology.”

Meet the NeoBiota journal

Founded in 2011 after participants at the 6th NEOBIOTA conference in Copenhagen agreed that a new international, open-access, peer-reviewed journal would definitely benefit the research community, and published by Pensoft Publishers, NeoBiota focuses  on the mechanisms and consequences of biological invasions across all disciplines.

Featuring research on the ecology, evolution, biogeography and human and social dimensions of biological invasions, the journal is committed to publishing high-quality research on the introduction, establishment, spread, and management of invasive alien species worldwide. As biological invasions pose a set of social, legal, and policy challenges, NeoBiota is keen on exploring how they can be managed and controlled.

New NeoBiota special issue: tackling invasive alien forest pests in Europe

The open-access journal prides itself on a rapid publication process, typically completing publication within 1-2 weeks after a manuscript’s acceptance. NeoBiota also supports advanced data publishing workflows, strongly encouraging open data publication. This commitment to open access and rapid publication, combined with a broad, interdisciplinary scope, makes it a leading journal in the field of invasion science. 

“The onboarding of additional well-renowned Editors-in-chief at NeoBiota promises a dynamic new chapter for the journal. There is no doubt that the team’s diverse expertise and commitment to open science will set the journal on a positive trajectory as one of the leading academic outlets in invasion science,” said Prof. Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft.

Orthoptera and origami: Pensoft at the International Congress of Entomology

Meeting our authors in person was a chance for us to gather valuable feedback and make sure we are doing our best.

The International Congress of Entomology 2024 (ICE2024), which took place on August 25-30 2024 in Kyoto, Japan, was arguably the biggest entomology event of the year. For the Pensoft team, it was an excellent chance to catch up with our authors and editors and discuss new partnerships.

At the Kyoto International Conference Center, entomologists visited lectures, symposia, and poster presentations, but they also enjoyed insect-themed haikus, origami, and artworks, and got to sample some edible insects.

Meeting our authors in person was a chance for us to gather valuable feedback and make sure we are doing our best to provide entomologists with a frictionless process that makes their published research shine.

  • Robin Kundrata, author in ZooKeys
  • Deepa Pureswaran, author and editor in NeoBiota
  • Alain Roques, author and editor in NeoBiota
  • Jessica Gillung, author in ZooKeys
  • Ranjith AP, editor in Check List and author in ZooKeys and Journal of Hymenoptera Research
  • Minoo Heidari Latibari, author in ZooKeys
  • Elisabeth Geiser, author in ZooKeys
  • Sven Bradler, author and editor in ZooKeys
  • Showtaro Kakizoe, author in ZooKeys
  • Antonio Carapelli, author and reviewer in ZooKeys

At Stand 25, congress participants browsed the company’s open-access entomological journals, including ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, and Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, as well as its wide range of books on insect diversity, systematics, and ecology.

Scientific illustrator Denitsa Peneva’s beautiful works adorned Pensoft’s stand; Mostafa Ghafouri Moghaddam, subject editor at ZooKeys and Biodiversity Data Journal and author at a number of Pensoft-published journals even got to take one of her prints home after winning a raffle that Pensoft organised. He won a beautiful illustration of Bombus fragrans on Trifolium pratense.

Pensoft’s founder and CEO and one of the founding editors of the company’s flagship journal ZooKeys, Prof. Lyubomir Penev, was there representing the company and meeting with fellow entomologists.

  • Prof. Penev with Evgeny Zakharov of the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics
  • Prof. Penev with researchers Jadranka Rota, Niklas Wahlberg, Alexander Konstantinov, and Michael Schmidt
  • Prof. Penev with researcher Caroline S. Chaboo

They also got the chance to learn about the ARPHA Platform, a next-generation publishing solution that offers a streamlined and efficient workflow for authors, reviewers, and editors.

ARPHA Platform’s 15 top features enjoyed by client journals and publishers

At ICE2024, Pensoft also presented its newest open-access jorunal, Natural History Collections and Museomics. A peer-reviewed journal for research, discussion and innovation of natural history collections, NHCM will publish under a diamond open access model, allowing free access to published content without any fees for authors or readers.

New Diamond OA journal Natural History Collections and Museomics launches on ARPHA Platform

In addition to its publishing endeavors, Pensoft also presented some of the EU-funded pollinator projects that it takes part in such as Safeguard, PollinERA, and WildPosh.

ICE2024 was a chance to advance entomological science and foster collaboration within the global scientific community. For those who missed the chance to connect with Pensoft in Kyoto, the company’s journals and platforms remain accessible online, offering opportunities to read and produce groundbreaking research in insect diversity and ecology.

Assessing the impact of invasive plants on ecosystems: a new framework

By combining several new advancements, the framework will aid in the management of plant invasions.

Invasive plant species pose a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem health worldwide. However, predicting the exact impact of these invasions is challenging due to the complexity of interactions between invading species, native communities, and impacted ecosystems.

To combat this issue, researchers from the University of Freiburg and Justus Liebig University Giessen have developed a framework to better assess the impact of invasive plant species on ecosystems.

Outlined in a study published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, the framework combines new technologies and techniques to learn and predict how invasive plants alter ecosystems over time and in different environments.

Animated model visualisation of spatial-temporal dynamics of invader impacts. Click here to download a detailed explanation of the model.

The new framework integrates several modern advancements:

Environmental mapping: Progress in remote sensing and ecological monitoring allow researchers to capture detailed information about the environmental conditions of invaded areas. Drones, satellites, and advanced sensory networks can be used to create detailed ecosystem maps, which show how invasive species interact with their environment.

Functional tracers: These are specific indicators that reflect changes in ecosystem functions caused by invasive species. For example, researchers can track the impact of nitrogen-fixing invasive plants on ecosystems using nitrogen isotopes.

Spatio-temporal modelling: By combining environmental data with new modelling techniques, such as AI, researchers can create detailed models showing the spread and impact of invasive species on ecosystems over time. Such models can predict how changes in environmental conditions, such as climate change, might influence an invasive species’ success.

Infographic showing the mechanisms that determine the impact of invasive plants on ecosystems.
Mechanisms determining plant invasion impact.

Beyond scientific analysis, novel technologies also facilitate communication of ecological impacts, as the authors demonstrate in an animated 3D-video visualisation.

“The framework we’ve introduced offers researchers deeper insights into how invasive plant species interact with their environments, enabling more targeted management to lessen their ecological impact. We advocate for stronger collaboration between ecologists and technical experts to refine and expand these methods.

“Going forward, further research and integration of the wide range of recent methods and tools are needed to enhance the framework’s effectiveness.”

The research team behind the new framework: Christiane Werner, Christine Hellmann and André Große-Stoltenberg.

Original source

Werner C, Hellmann C, Große-Stoltenberg A (2024) An integrative framework to assess the spatio-temporal impact of plant invasion on ecosystem functioning. NeoBiota 94: 225-242. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.94.126714

Follow NeoBiota on X and Facebook.

Pensoft at the 7th European Congress of Conservation Biology as a publisher and Horizon project partner

At the Pensoft’s stand, delegates learned about the scientific publisher’s versatile open-access journal portfolio, as well as related publishing services and the Horizon project where Pensoft is a partner.

Between 17th and 22nd June 2024, Pensoft’s scholarly publishing and project teams joined the European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB), organised by the Society for Conservation Biology and hosted by the University of Bologna.

Here’s a fun fact: the University of Bologna is the oldest one still in operation in the world. It is also etched in history for being the first institution to award degrees of higher learning.  

This year, the annual event themed “Biodiversity positive by 2030” took place in the stunning Italian city of Bologna famous for its historical and cultural heritage, in a way building a bridge between the past of European civilisation and the future, which is now in our hands.

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At the Pensoft’s stand, delegates learned about the scientific publisher’s versatile open-access journal portfolio of over 30 journals covering the fields of ecology and biodiversity, as well as other related services and products offered by Pensoft, including the end-to-end full-featured scholarly publishing platform ARPHA, which hosts and powers all Pensoft journals, in addition to dozens other academic outlets owned by learned societies, natural history museums and other academic institutions.

In addition to its convenient collaborative online environment, user interface and automated export/import workflows, what ARPHA’s clients enjoy perhaps the most, are the various human-provided services that come with the platform, including graphic and web design, assistance in journal indexing, typesetting, copyediting and science communication.

Visitors at the stand could also be heard chatting with Pensoft’s Head of Journal development, Marketing and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva about the publisher’s innovative solutions for permanent preservation and far-reaching dissemination and communication of academic outputs that do not match the traditional research article format.

For example, the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal was launched in 2015 by Pensoft as an open-science journal that would publish ‘unconventional’ research outputs, such as Grant proposals, Policy briefs, Project reports, Data management plans, Research ideas etc. Its project-branded open-science collections are in fact one of the Pensoft’s products that enjoys particular attention to participants in scientific projects funded by the likes of the European Commission’s Horizon programme.

Another innovation by Pensoft that easily becomes a talking point at forums like ECCB, is the ARPHA Conference Abstract (ACA) platform, which is basically a journal for conference abstracts, where abstracts are treated and published much like regular journal articles (a.k.a. ‘mini papers’) to enable permanent preservation, but also accessibility, discoverability and citability. Furthermore, ACA has been designed to act as an abstracts submission portal, where the abstracts undergo review and receive feedback before being published and indexed at dozens of relevant scientific databases.

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At ECCB 2024, our team was also happy to meet in person many authors and editors, whose work has frequented the pages of journals like Nature Conservation, Biodiversity Data Journal, ZooKeys and NeoBiota, to name a few.

On Wednesday, delegates also got a chance to hear the talk by renowned vegetation ecologist at the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences and Editor-in-Chief at the Vegetation Classification and Survey journal: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Dengler. He presented findings and conclusions concerning neophytes in Switzerland, while drawing comparisons with other European countries and regions.

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At this year’s ECCB, Pensoft took a stand as an active Horizon project participant too. At the publisher’s booth, the delegates could explore various project outputs produced within REST-COAST, SpongeBoost and BioAgora. Each of these initiatives has been selected by the European Commission to work on the mitigation of biodiversity decline, while aiming for sustainable ecosystems throughout the Old continent.

In all three projects, Pensoft is a consortium member, who contributes with expertise in science communication, dissemination, stakeholder engagement and technological development.

Coordinated by the Catalonia University of Technology UPC-BarcelonaTech and involving over 30 European institutions, REST-COAST has been working on developing tools to address key challenges to coastal ecosystems – all consequences of a long history of environmental degradation of our rivers and coasts.

Having started earlier this year, SpongeBoost is to build upon existing solutions and their large-scale implementation by implementing innovative approaches to improve the functional capacity of sponge landscapes. The project is coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and will be developed with the active participation of 10 partnering institutions from seven countries across Europe. 

In the meantime, since 2022, the five-year BioAgora project has been working towards setting up the Science Service for Biodiversity platform, which will turn into an efficient forum for dialogue between scientists, policy actors and other knowledge holders. BioAgora is a joint initiative, which brings together 22 partners from 13 European countries led by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE).

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Still, REST-COAST, SpongeBoost and BioAgora were not the only Horizon projects involving Pensoft that made an appearance at ECCB this year thanks to the Pensoft team. 

On behalf of OBSGESSION – another Horizon-funded project, Nikola Ganchev, Communications officer at Pensoft, presented a poster about the recently started project. Until the end of 2027, the OBSGESSION project, also led by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and involving a total of 12 partnering organisations, will be tasked with the integration of different biodiversity data sources, including Earth Observation, in-situ research, and ecological models. Eventually, these will all be made into a comprehensive product for biodiversity management in both terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. 

On Tuesday evening, the CO-OP4CBD (abbreviation for Co-operation for the Convention on Biological Diversity) team: another Horizon Europe project, where Pensoft contributes with expertise in science communication and dissemination, held a workshop dedicated to what needs to be done to promote CBD activities in Central and Eastern Europe.

On the next day, scientists from the EuropaBON consortium: another project involving Pensoft that had concluded only about a month ago, held a session to report on the final conclusions from the project concerning the state and progress in biodiversity monitoring.

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You can find the detailed scientific programme of this year’s ECCB on the congress’ website. 

Use the #ECCB2024 hashtag on X (formerly Twitter) to relive highlights from the ECCB congress. 

Pensoft launches official Weibo account to expand global reach

The Pensoft team is looking forward to engaging in conversations with its Chinese authors, editors, and readers.

Scholarly publisher Pensoft is excited to announce it is now on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The move is aimed at fostering stronger connections with researchers, academics, and enthusiasts in China, which in turn will enhance the dissemination of scientific knowledge and facilitate international collaboration.

With over half a billion active users, Weibo is a powerful social media platform that combines the functionalities of microblogging and social networking. The Pensoft team is looking forward to engaging in real-time conversations with its Chinese audience, sharing insights, and receiving their feedback.

The launch coincides with the Dragon Boat Festival, a significant cultural event in China that commemorates the ancient poet Qu Yuan and symbolizes unity and teamwork. 

The move aims to make Pensoft’s publications and updates more accessible to Chinese researchers, allowing them to stay informed about the latest scientific discoveries and advancements. In addition, it offers an excellent opportunity for Pensoft to foster collaborations with Chinese institutions, researchers, and academic societies.

As a pioneer in open-access publishing, Pensoft will also use its Weibo account to promote the benefits of open access, making sure Chinese research reaches a global audience without paywalls.

“China, with its rapidly growing research output and a burgeoning community of scholars, represents a significant segment of the global academic landscape. Recognizing the importance of engaging with this vibrant community, Pensoft’s decision to establish a presence on Weibo underscores its commitment to inclusivity and accessibility in scientific publishing,” says Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft.

We invite you to join Pensoft’s Weibo account to learn all about our latest scientific discoveries and publishing updates.

How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and future-proof?

Now concluded Horizon 2020-funded project BiCIKL shares lessons learned with policy-makers and research funders

Within the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project, 14 European institutions from ten countries, spent the last three years elaborating on services and high-tech digital tools, in order to improve the findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR-ness) of various types of data about the world’s biodiversity. These types of data include peer-reviewed scientific literature, occurrence records, natural history collections, DNA data and more.

By ensuring all those data are readily available and efficiently interlinked to each other, the project consortium’s intention is to provide better tools to the scientific community, so that it can more rapidly and effectively study, assess, monitor and preserve Earth’s biological diversity in line with the objectives of the likes of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the European Green Deal. Their targets require openly available, precise and harmonised data to underpin the design of effective measures for restoration and conservation, reminds the BiCIKL consortium.

Since 2021, the project partners at BiCIKL have been working together to elaborate existing workflows and links, as well as create brand new ones, so that their data resources, platforms and tools can seamlessly communicate with each other, thereby taking the burden off the shoulders of scientists and letting them focus on their actual mission: paving the way to healthy and sustainable ecosystems across Europe and beyond.

New BiCIKL project to build a freeway between pieces of biodiversity knowledge

Now that the three-year project is officially over, the wider scientific community is yet to reap the fruits of the consortium’s efforts. In fact, the end of the BiCIKL project marks the actual beginning of a European- and global-wide revolution in the way biodiversity scientists access, use and produce data. It is time for the research community, as well as all actors involved in the study of biodiversity and the implementation of regulations necessary to protect and preserve it, to embrace the lessons learned, adopt the good practices identified and build on the knowledge in existence.

This is why amongst the BiCIKL’s major final research outputs, there are two Policy Briefs meant to summarise and highlight important recommendations addressed to key policy makers, research institutions and funders of research. After all, it is the regulatory bodies that are best equipped to share and implement best practices and guidelines.

Most recently, the BiCIKL consortium published two particularly important policy briefs, both addressed to the likes of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment; the European Environment Agency; the Joint Research Centre; as well as science and policy interface platforms, such as the EU Biodiversity Platform; and also organisations and programmes, e.g. Biodiversa+ and EuropaBON, which are engaged in biodiversity monitoring, protection and restoration. The policy briefs are also to be of particular use to national research funds in the European Union.

One of the newly published policy briefs, titled “Uniting FAIR data through interlinked, machine-actionable infrastructures”, highlights the potential benefits derived from enhanced connectivity and interoperability among various types of biodiversity data. The publication includes a list of recommendations addressed to policy-makers, as well as nine key action points. Understandably, amongst the main themes are those of wider international cooperation; inclusivity and collaboration at scale; standardisation and bringing science and policy closer to industry. Another major outcome of the BiCIKL project: the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub portal is noted as central to many of these objectives and tasks in its role of a knowledge broker that will continue to be maintained and updated with additional FAIR data-compliant services as a living legacy of the collaborative efforts at BiCIKL.

The second policy brief, titled “Liberate the power of biodiversity literature as FAIR digital objects”, shares key actions that can liberate data published in non-machine actionable formats and non-interoperable platforms, so that those data can also be efficiently accessed and used; as well as ways to publish future data according to the best FAIR and linked data practices. The recommendations highlighted in the policy brief intend to support decision-making in Europe; expedite research by making biodiversity data immediately and globally accessible; provide curated data ready to use by AI applications; and bridge gaps in the life cycle of research data through digital-born data. Several new and innovative workflows, linkages and integrative mechanisms and services developed within BiCIKL are mentioned as key advancements created to access and disseminate data available from scientific literature. 

While all policy briefs and factsheets – both primarily targeted at non-expert decision-makers who play a central role in biodiversity research and conservation efforts – are openly and freely available on the project’s website, the most important contributions were published as permanent scientific records in a BiCIKL-branded dedicated collection in the peer-reviewed open-science journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO). There, the policy briefs are provided as both a ready-to-print document (available as supplementary material) and an extensive academic publication.

Currently, the collection: “Towards interlinked FAIR biodiversity knowledge: The BiCIKL perspective” in the RIO journal contains 60 publications, including policy briefs, project reports, methods papers, conference abstracts, demonstrating and highlighting key milestones and project outcomes from along the BiCIKL’s journey in the last three years. The collection also features over 15 scientific publications authored by people not necessarily involved in BiCIKL, but whose research uses linked open data and tools created in BiCIKL. Their publications were published in a dedicated article collection in the Biodiversity Data Journal.

BiCIKL keeps on adding project outcomes in own collection in RIO Journal

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Visit the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project’s website at: https://bicikl-project.eu/.

Don’t forget to also explore the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH) for yourself at: https://biodiversityknowledgehub.eu/ and watch the BKH’s introduction video. 

Highlights from the BiCIKL project are also accessible on Twitter/X from the project’s hashtag: #BiCIKL_H2020 and handle: @BiCIKL_H2020.

BiCIKL project sums up outcomes and future prospects at a Final GA in Cambridge

The silent invasion: how termites threaten homes worldwide

As climate patterns shift, global cities may soon find themselves under siege by these tiny yet destructive pests.

As climate change continues its relentless march, the world faces not only rising temperatures and extreme weather, but also an insidious threat to our homes: invasive termites. And the bill could be steep – invasive termites currently cost over 40 billion USD annually.

In a new study published in the open-access journal Neobiota, PhD student Edouard Duquesne and Professor Denis Fournier from the Evolutionary Biology & Ecology lab (Université libre de Bruxelles) unveil the unsettling reality of invasive termites’ potential expansion into new territories.

Their research reveals that as temperatures rise and climate patterns shift, cities worldwide, from tropical hotspots like Miami, Sao Paulo, Lagos, Jakarta or Darwin to temperate metropolises like Paris, Brussels, London, New York or Tokyo, could soon find themselves under siege by these tiny yet destructive pests.

A man with a headtorch inspects the damages caused by Coptotermes gestroi termites on a house wall.
Adolfo Cuadrado, a termite infestation specialist at Anticimex, meticulously inspects the damages caused by Coptotermes gestroi on a house wall. © David Mora: https://www.pasiontermitas.com.

But how do termites, typically associated with tropical climates, find their way into cities far beyond their natural habitat? The answer lies in the interconnectedness of our modern world. Urbanisation, with its dense populations and bustling trade networks, provides the perfect breeding ground for termite invasions.

Moreover, the global movement of goods, including wooden furniture transported by private vessels, offers unsuspecting pathways for these silent invaders to hitch a ride into our homes.

“A solitary termite colony, nestled within a small piece of wood, could clandestinely voyage from the West Indies to your Cannes apartment. It might lurk within furniture aboard a yacht moored at the Cannes Film Festival marina.”

“Mating is coming. Termite queens and kings, attracted by lights, may initiate reproduction, laying the groundwork for new colonies to conquer dry land.”

Researchers Edouard Duquesne and Denis Fournier.

Duquesne and Fournier’s research emphasises the need for a paradigm shift in how we approach invasive species modelling. By integrating connectivity variables like trade, transport, and population density, their study highlights the importance of understanding the intricate interactions that facilitate termite spread.

Workers and soldiers of the invasive termite Reticulitermes.
Workers and soldiers of the invasive termite Reticulitermes. © David Mora: https://www.pasiontermitas.com.

In light of these findings, the researchers urge swift action from policymakers and citizens alike. Major cities, regardless of their climate zone, must implement strict termite control measures to protect homes and infrastructure.

“Citizens can play a crucial role by leveraging technology, such as AI-assisted apps like iNaturalist, to detect and report potential termite sightings, turning ordinary residents into vigilant guardians of their environment,” say the researchers.

“As we confront the challenges of a rapidly changing climate, awareness and proactive measures are our best defence against the creeping menace of invasive termites,” they conclude.

Original source

Duquesne E, Fournier D (2024) Connectivity and climate change drive the global distribution of highly invasive termites. NeoBiota 92: 281-314. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.92.115411

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Flamboyant and lethal: unveiling the lionfish invasion of the Mediterranean Sea

So-called ‘devil firefish’ are taking over new waters with little resistance from native species.

Research from Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands, reveals invasive lionfish are rapidly expanding their territory in the Mediterranean sea, causing severe ecological damage.

Published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, the study shows the lionfish species Pterois miles – known as the devil firefish –  has established presence in the eastern Mediterranean, with observations now extending to colder waters previously thought to be unsuitable for the species.

A map of the Mediterranean Sea, with dots showing the first sighting of invasive lionfish. It shows a gradual eastwrd progression of lionfish sightings over time.
Map of years of first sighting of Pterois miles by dive centres. Credit: Bottacini et al.

Originating from the Indo-Pacific region, the lionfish species Pterois miles and Pterois volitans  are regarded as the most successful and lethal invasive fishes in marine ecosystems, with the capacity to drastically affect local fish communities and biodiversity in invaded areas.

The invasion of Pterois miles in the Mediterranean Sea began around ten years ago. Genetic studies reveal the invasive fish originated from the Red Sea and likely entered through the Suez Canal.

The beautiful but deadly devil firefish. Credit: Kora27 via Wikimedia Commons.

Lionfish are generalist predators and impact ecosystems by preying extensively on local fishes, including endemics of high conservation value. As they are unaccustomed to lionfish, native prey species usually do not flee from this new predator.

“After years studying these predators, I find it amazing how they can easily adjust to so many different environments and be successful in areas so different from where they evolve.”

“It is always impressive to see how such a flamboyant and–to us–conspicuous predator can approach its prey without being noticed”

The study’s lead author, Davide Bottacini.

The fin spines of Pterois miles are highly venomous. A sting can cause extreme pain, sickness, convulsions, minor paralysis, and breathing difficulties in humans. Immediate emergency medical attention is recommended for anyone stung by the species.

By reviewing existing scientific data, researchers identified gaps in current understanding of the lionfish’s interactions with Mediterranean ecosystems.

They suggest that, while they consider the eradication of invasive lionfish impossible, tackling questions such as the community-level impact of them in the Mediterranean, and the evolutionary and learned responses in prey, will add to the body of knowledge on the best documented invasion in marine ecosystems.

Three maps of dive centre respondents and lionfish sightings on the Meditteranean Sea coat showing a gradual eastwrd progression of sightings.
Maps of dive centre respondents and lionfish sightings. Credit: Bottacini et al.

Such information provides insights vital for biodiversity conservation, with practical implications for policy makers aiming to devise efficient mitigation plans.

Citizen science initiatives for tracking and reporting lionfish sightings are encouraged to provide valuable data that supports ongoing research efforts. Such community involvement is essential for enhancing understanding of the invasion dynamics and devising effective control measures.

Original source

Bottacini D, Pollux BJA, Nijland R, Jansen PA, Naguib M, Kotrschal A (2024) Lionfish (Pterois miles) in the Mediterranean Sea: a review of the available knowledge with an update on the invasion front. NeoBiota 92: 233–257. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.92.110442

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Pensoft took a BiCIKL ride to Naturalis to report on a 3-year endeavour towards FAIR data

Three years ago, the BiCIKL consortium took to traverse obstacles to wider use and adoption of FAIR and linked biodiversity data.

Leiden – also known as the ‘City of Keys’ and the ‘City of Discoveries’ – was aptly chosen to host the third Empowering Biodiversity Research (EBR III) conference. The two-day conference – this time focusing on the utilisation of biodiversity data as a vehicle for biodiversity research to reach to Policy – was held in a no less fitting locality: the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. 

On 25th and 26th March 2024, the delegates got the chance to learn more about the latest discoveries, trends and innovations from scientists, as well as various stakeholders, including representatives of policy-making bodies, research institutions and infrastructures. The conference also ran a poster session and a Biodiversity Informatics market, where scientists, research teams, project consortia, and providers of biodiversity research-related services and tools could showcase their work and meet like-minded professionals.

BiCIKL stops at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center

The main outcome of the BiCIKL project: the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub, a one-stop knowledge portal to interlinked and machine-readable FAIR data.

The famous for its bicycle friendliness country also made a suitable stop for BiCIKL (an acronym for the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library): a project funded under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme that aimed at triggering a culture change in the way users access, (re)use, publish and share biodiversity data. To do this, the BiCIKL consortium set off on a 3-year journey to build on the existing biodiversity data infrastructures, workflows, standards and the linkages between them.

Many of the people who have been involved in the project over the last three years could be seen all around the beautiful venue. Above all, Naturalis is itself one of the partnering institutions at BiCIKL. Then, on Tuesday, on behalf of the BiCIKL consortium and the project’s coordinator: the scientific publisher and technology innovator: Pensoft, Iva Boyadzhieva presented the work done within the project one month ahead of its official conclusion at the end of April.

As she talked about the way the BiCIKL consortium took to traverse obstacles to wider use and adoption of FAIR and linked biodiversity data, she focused on BiCIKL’s main outcome: the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH).

Key results from the BiCIKL project three years into its existence presented by Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva at the EBR III conference.

Intended to act as a knowledge broker for users who wish to navigate and access sources of open and FAIR biodiversity data, guidelines, tools and services, in practicality, the BKH is a one-stop portal for understanding the complex but increasingly interconnected landscape of biodiversity research infrastructures in Europe and beyond. It collates information, guidelines, recommendations and best practices in usage of FAIR and linked biodiversity data, as well as a continuously expanded catalogue of compliant relevant services and tools.

At the core of the BKH is the FAIR Data Place (FDP), where users can familiarise themselves with each of the participating biodiversity infrastructures and network organisations, and also learn about the specific services they provide. There, anyone can explore various biodiversity data tools and services by browsing by their main data type, e.g. specimens, sequences, taxon names, literature.

While the project might be coming to an end, she pointed out, the BKH is here to stay as a navigation system in a universe of interconnected biodiversity research infrastructures.

To do this, not only will the partners continue to maintain it, but it will also remain open to any research infrastructure that wishes to feature its own tools and services compliant with the linked and FAIR data requirements set by the BiCIKL consortium.

On the event’s website you can access the BiCIKL’s slides presentation as presented at the EBR III conference.

What else was on at the EBR III?

Indisputably, the ‘hot’ topics at the EBR III were the novel technologies for remote and non-invasive, yet efficient biomonitoring; the utilisation of data and other input sourced by citizen scientists; as well as leveraging different types and sources of biodiversity data, in order to better inform decision-makers, but also future-proof the scientific knowledge we have collected and generated to date.

Project’s coordinator Dr Quentin Groom presents the B-Cubed’s approach towards standardised access to biodiversity data for the use of policy-making at the EBR III conference.

Amongst the other Horizon Europe projects presented at the EBR III conference was B-Cubed (Biodiversity Building Blocks for policy). On Monday, the project’s coordinator Dr Quentin Groom (Meise Botanic Garden) familiarised the conference participants with the project, which aims to standardise access to biodiversity data, in order to empower policymakers to proactively address the impacts of biodiversity change.

You can find more about B-Cubed and Pensoft’s role in it in this blog post.

On the event’s website you can access the B-Cubed’s slides presentation as presented at the EBR III conference.

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Dr France Gerard (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology) talks about the challenges in using raw data – including those provided by drones – to derive habitat condition metrics.

MAMBO: another Horizon Europe project where Pensoft has been contributing with expertise in science communication, dissemination and exploitation, was also an active participant at the event. An acronym for Modern Approaches to the Monitoring of BiOdiversity, MAMBO had its own session on Tuesday morning, where Dr Vincent Kalkman (Naturalis Biodiversity Center), Dr France Gerard (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology) and Prof. Toke Høye (Aarhus University) each took to the stage to demonstrate how modern technology developed within the project is to improve biodiversity and habitat monitoring. Learn more about MAMBO and Pensoft’s involvement in this blog post.

MAMBO’s project coordinator Prof. Toke T. Høye talked about smarter technologies for biodiversity monitoring, including camera traps able to count insects at a particular site.

On the event’s website you can access the MAMBO’s slides presentations by Kalkman, Gerard and Høye, as presented at the EBR III conference.

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The EBR III conference also saw a presentation – albeit remote – from Prof. Dr. Florian Leese (Dean at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and Editor-in-Chief at the Metabarcoding and Metagenomics journal), where he talked about the promise, but also the challenges for DNA-based methods to empower biodiversity monitoring. 

Amongst the key tasks here, he pointed out, are the alignment of DNA-based methods with the Global Biodiversity Framework; central push and funding for standards and guidance; publication of data in portals that adhere to the best data practices and rules; and the mobilisation of existing resources such as the meteorological ones. 

Prof. Dr. Florian Leese talked about the promise, but also the challenges for DNA-based methods to empower biodiversity monitoring. He also referred to the 2022 Forum Paper: “Introducing guidelines for publishing DNA-derived occurrence data through biodiversity data platforms” by R. Henrik Nilsson et al.

He also made a reference to the Forum Paper “Introducing guidelines for publishing DNA-derived occurrence data through biodiversity data platforms” by R. Henrik Nilsson et al., where the international team provided a brief rationale and an overview of guidelines targeting the principles and approaches of exposing DNA-derived occurrence data in the context of broader biodiversity data. In the study, published in the Metabarcoding and Metagenomics journal in 2022, they also introduced a living version of these guidelines, which continues to encourage feedback and interaction as new techniques and best practices emerge.

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You can find the programme on the conference website and see highlights on the conference hashtag: #EBR2024.

Don’t forget to also explore the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub for yourself at: https://biodiversityknowledgehub.eu/