Pensoft has been awarded the Seal of Recognition for the FAO AGRIS Active Data Provider of the Year for 2027. The seal is granted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations through its AGRIS initiative, and it recognises institutions that consistently share open-access agricultural research with the global community.
Notably, Pensoft joined the FAO AGRIS network back in 2024, and the organisation has renewed our seal every year since, a recognition we’re proud to have kept.
What has changed is the scale of our contribution. In 2024, Pensoft’s records on AGRIS numbered just under 15,000. Today, that figure has doubled to nearly 30,000, drawn from all 51 of our journals that fall within the scope of FAO AGRIS. The subjects covered are wide-ranging, spanning taxonomy, biodiversity, conservation and biogeography – these are all areas that feed directly into sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.
Through AGRIS, this research travels well beyond our own journals to researchers, policymakers and practitioners worldwide, adding to the shared pool of open knowledge that supports global food security and environmental sustainability. We’re glad to keep contributing to that effort, and look forward to continuing our work with FAO AGRIS in the years to come.
About FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Its goal is to achieve food security for all, ensuring that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With 194 members, 193 countries and the European Union, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide.
About Pensoft
Founded in 1992 “by scientists, for scientists,” Pensoft is an academic open-access publishing company well known worldwide for its cutting-edge publishing tools, workflows and methods for text and data publishing of journals, books and conference materials. In 2010, Pensoft became the first scientific publisher to introduce semantic enrichments in scholarly publications. Through its Research and Technical Development department, the company is involved in a range of research and technology projects.
Two ARPHA-powered have each received their first ever Scopus CiteScore, a milestone that reflects not only their growing scholarly impact, but also the role that robust, modern publishing infrastructure can play in helping journals gain visibility and recognition in the global academic community.
The Scopus CiteScore, traditionally announced in June, reflects citation rates over the past four full calendar years; the 2025 score draws on data from 2022 to 2025. Scopus also maintains the CiteScoreTracker, offering a monthly update incorporating citation data from the ongoing year.
Caucasiana has received an inaugural Scopus CiteScore of 1.7, marking a welcome milestone for this recently established journal.
Launched in 2022 through a collaboration between Ilia State University (Georgia) and Pensoft Publishers, Caucasiana is an international peer-reviewed, open-access, and free-of-charge online journal covering all research branches related to biodiversity in the Caucasus region and adjacent areas. The journal was established to widen and enhance biodiversity research and publishing in this poorly studied but richly biodiverse hotspot.
From its inception, the journal was built on the ARPHA Platform, giving it immediate access to a streamlined editorial workflow, wide indexation, and the infrastructure needed to grow its academic presence rapidly.
Reflecting on the milestone, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Dr. Levan Mumladze shares:
This is a remarkable achievement, and I was genuinely surprised that we managed to accomplish it in such a short time. Receiving our first Scopus metric has certainly boosted my motivation and confidence as Editor-in-Chief. This kind of recognition affirms that what we are doing is being done right – and that is a powerful motivator to press forward with even greater energy. I am confident that the progress we have made will translate into even stronger results.
Contributions to Entomology has received its first Scopus CiteScore of 1.1, ranking in Q2 for History and Philosophy of Science, placing it in the upper 60th percentile for that category.
With roots going back to 1951, when it was founded as Beiträge zur Entomologie by the Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Contributions to Entomology has a long and distinguished history in entomological publishing.
Publishing on ARPHA has brought this wealth of entomological knowledge into a modern, fully integrated publishing environment, maximising its discoverability and reach across more than 40 indexing services.
Both journals are published on theARPHA Platform, Pensoft’s self-developed end-to-end publishing solution that streamlines the entire editorial workflow – from manuscript submission and peer review through to editing, publication, and archiving – ultimately making research easy for both people and machines to access, cite, and reuse.
ARPHA’s publishing services also include human-provided support and integrations with third-party providers, designed to maximise the reach and usability of scholarly knowledge. Both journals are archived in CLOCKSS, Zenodo, Portico, and Zendy, and indexed in more than 40 services, including Scopus, CrossRef, DOAJ, and ResearchGate.
The latest Scopus CiteScore and CiteScoreTracker are automatically displayed on each journal’s homepage and in its newsletter.
Once again, Pensoft joined the ESP conference as an open-access scholarly publisher, publishing services provider, and a partner at Horizon Europe consortia.
Conference Organising Committee’s Davina Vačkářová thanks the ESP2026EU’s sponsors, exhibitors and partners. Photo courtesy of the ESP.
From 18 to 22 May 2026, the historic city of Prague, Czechia, hosted the 6th European Conference of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP). Set against a backdrop of global turning points, such as biodiversity declines and climate uncertainty, the event served as an important forum for discussing how ecosystem services can cultivate a sustainable and equitable future.
This year’s ESP European conference ran under the theme “Advancing ecosystem services knowledge for achieving a nature- and people-positive Europe.” Photo courtesy of the ESP.
The conference ran under the theme, “Advancing ecosystem services knowledge for achieving a nature- and people-positive Europe.” Attendees focused on how to translate major policy frameworks, including the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the new Nature Restoration Law, into inclusive and effective action that respects both nature and healthy ecosystems. A major talking point at the event was also the new path ahead of the ESP as it officially becomes an independent international community later in 2026. An election of a new Steering and Executive Committee has already been scheduled for October 2026.
For Pensoft, the ESP 2026 European conference was not only a wonderful occasion to meet once again many long-time partners and friends, including the ESP team itself; editors and loyal authors of our journals; and members of the international project consortia, where we are involved, but also an exciting opportunity to talk with new members of the ESP community and learn about the needs, interests and passions of a new generation of researchers in a rapidly changing scientific field.
Pensoft’s stand at the ESP 2026 Europe conference in Prague, Czechia.
As an open-science publisher well embedded in environmental research through its dozens of journals covering ecology, biodiversity conservation and other related fields, Pensoft Publishers also actively participated in the week’s dialogues, contributing unique perspectives on scientific communication.
The Karolinum: the seat of Prague’s Charles University hosted the pre-conference training sessions, the Opening ceremony and the Welcome reception on Monday. Photo courtesy of the ESP.
The sixth European installment of the conference kicked off on Monday, 18 May, at the Karolinum, the historic seat of Charles University. The energy of a dynamic, highly engaging week was set perfectly by a lavish evening ceremony filled with speeches from renowned local figures, traditional music, and cultural performances. Yet, long before the opening notes played, the Karolinum was already buzzing, having hosted a full slate of pre-conference training sessions throughout the day.
A get-together for the editors and loyal authors of the open-access peer-reviewed One Ecosystem – the Ecology and Sustainability Data Journal took place on Monday at the Karolinum (Prague, Czechia).
Just ahead of the opening ceremony, our team at Pensoft hosted a semi-formal get-together for the editors and loyal authors of the open-access peer-reviewed One Ecosystem – the Ecology and Sustainability Data Journal. This year, the scholarly outlet, launched in collaboration between Pensoft, the ESP and the ESMERALDA Horizon 2020 project, now succeeded by the Horizon Europe-funded project SELINA, celebrated its tenth anniversary.
Chaired by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Benjamin Burkhard and Pensoft’s Head of Journal Development and PR Iva Boyadzhieva, the meeting recapped the best moments from One Ecosystem’s first decade and inspired discussions and ideas for the journal’s future. They also referred to the recently published editorial titled “Ten years of innovation and the way ahead in scientific publishing in One Ecosystem”. The piece reflects on the journal’s journey since its 2016 launch and addresses modern challenges in academic publishing, such as reviewer fatigue and the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence.
Over the last ten years, One Ecosystem has established itself as a unique journal in the field, thanks to its commitment to openly sharing the research data underpinning each publication. It also offers a versatile range of article types. These include traditional formats (e.g. Research Article, Review Article, Data Paper), innovative options (e.g. Software Description, R Package, Single-media Publication), as well as ones specifically devised for the community, such as Ecosystem Inventory, Ecosystem Service Mapping and Ecosystem Accounting Table.
So far, the journal has published over 200 papers authored by scientists from all continents, accumulating more than 1,500,000 views, 600 citations, and 6,000 online mentions. Today, the journal’s editorial board comprises 50 experts representing diverse geographies and professional fields. One Ecosystem is indexed in over 60 relevant scholarly databases, including Scopus and Web of Science, and holds a Q1 ranking on Scopus. Authors also benefit from a swift turnaround time, with an average of just 2.5 months from submission to acceptance, and articles typically published within three months of submission.
Keynote speeches at the first conference day were delivered by Jakub Kronenberg (University of Lodz), Alessandra La Notte (Senior consultant on natural capital accounting) and Ben Delbaere (LIFE Programme).
On Tuesday, the main schedule opened with inspiring keynote speeches, with Jakub Kronenberg (University of Lodz) examining the transition towards relational values of nature, Alessandra La Notte (Senior consultant on natural capital accounting) sharing two decades of insights into natural capital accounting, and Ben Delbaere (LIFE Programme at ELMEN EEIG) demonstrating how the European LIFE Programme supports a nature- and people-positive society.
Later in the day on Tuesday, Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva, Head of Journal Development and PR, gave a talk on the topic of scholarly communication as part of a session organised and hosted by the Early Career Researchers (ECR) division of the ESP: Young Ecosystem Services Partnership (YESS) and focused on building practical skills and fostering careers for young researchers.
Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva gave a talk titled “Scholarly Communication: Lessons from the publisher’s kitchen” as part of the YESS session “The Early Career Lab: Skills, Identity, and Growth for the Next Generation of Ecosystem Services Researchers”.
Boyadzhieva shared insights into how authors and publishers can work collaboratively to transform scholarly publications into scientific knowledge that is accessible to everyone, everywhere, regardless of professional background or expertise, by drawing on real-life examples and automated publication processes.
One Ecosystem’s Editor-in-Chief Prof. Benjamin Burkhard.
One Ecosystem’s Editor-in-Chief Prof. Benjamin Burkhard at the ESP session “The Changing Landscape of Academic Publishing on Ecosystem Services Research: Editors’ Perspectives.”
The One Ecosystem journal took center stage once again on Friday afternoon during a panel session titled, “The Changing Landscape of Academic Publishing on Ecosystem Services Research: Editors’ Perspectives.” The event brought together the Editors-in-Chief of the three ESP-associated journals for an engaging open discussion about the shifting dynamics of scientific literature. Sharing insights gained from One Ecosystem’s 10-year journey, Burkhard highlighted how authors of research who work closely with their publishers can support knowledge sharing and empower researchers. In the case of One Ecosystem, this collaboration translates to increased visibility, discoverability, reusability and citability of the published work, as well as rapid and hassle-free authoring and peer review experience, all thanks to the automated workflows and human-centric approaches provided through the publishing solutions of the ARPHA publishing platform.
It is worth issuing a reminder that manuscripts submitted in 2026 and accepted for publication in One Ecosystem journal are eligible for a 10% discount on the article publication charge (APC).
Despite excellent on-site organization, many sessions struggled to accommodate the massive turnout.Photo courtesy of the ESP.
Throughout the week, the daily program featured eight parallel session tracks covering a wide range of topics, many closely aligned with ESP Working Groups and National Networks. A dedicated poster session took place on Wednesday afternoon.
One of the field excursions offered ESP 2026 Europe delegates the challenge of an intense, half-day climbing experience in a nature park just outside Prague. Photo courtesy of ESP.
On Thursday, delegates had the opportunity to join one of several field excursions. These ranged from a visit to the unique rewilding reserve located in the former military area in Milovice, to a walk through the Prague Pasture: one of the city’s most remarkable natural sites, and an intense climbing experience just outside Prague.
Zdeněk Ent was awarded Best Poster for his poster, “Experiencing Ecosystem Services: Art, Sensory Engagement and Transformative Learning in Peri-Urban Landscapes”. In a yearly tradition, part of the award includes a free publication in the One Ecosystem journal.
Following an ESP tradition, the three highest-voted posters were recognised during Friday’s closing ceremony, with the first-prize winner receiving a free publication in One Ecosystem, sponsored by Pensoft. This year, the Best Poster Award went to Zdeněk Ent from Prague Institute of Planning and Development for the poster “Experiencing Ecosystem Services: Art, Sensory Engagement and Transformative Learning in Peri-Urban Landscapes”.
During the week, Pensoft’s exhibition stand welcomed dozens of inquiries regarding the publisher’s tailored journal portfolio. Visitors also expressed keen curiosity about the publishing services and self-developed platform available to journal owners, book authors, and conference organizers. Meanwhile, delegates showed notable interest in several titles, both well-established journals like Nature Conservation, NeoBiota, Metabarcoding & Metagenomics and One Ecosystem, and newly launched ones, including Individual-based Ecology and Advances in Pollinator Research.
A lot of Pensoft stand’s visitors were also pleased to see that there was a new player amongst the journals of Pensoft aimed at an emerging field in ecology. The recently rebranded Agricultural and Ecological Modelling (AEM) provides a unique scholarly outlet thanks to its modern approach to publishing by increasing transparency, giving credit to research objects across the entire modelling research lifecycle. This is achieved through publishing specialised article types, such as: Formal Model, Model Testing and Calibration, Model Implementation and Documentation, Data Papers and Software Descriptions. These new publishing formats are designed to keep pace with advances in Modelling research and to make it FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) by enabling scholarly credit for diverse research outputs, often created by different groups of authors. For the time being, AEM remains a Diamond Open Access journal, meaning that it will not charge authors for open-access publication.
AEM also has a focus on open science and reproducibility; it is currently archived in four databases (CLOCKSS, Zenodo, Portico, and Zendy) and indexed in over 40 services, including AGRICOLA, CABI, ChronosHub, CNKI, FAO AGRIS, ResearchGate, and Swisscovery, among others. You can learn more about AEM in the latest editorial.
For those who missed the opportunity to sign up for the journals’ newsletters at the stand, they can do this by filling in their email address from the homepage of the journal they are interested in, or by updating their profiles in the Pensoft system.
Undoubtedly, amongst the greatest highlights at the Pensoft’s stand was the Horizon Europe-funded GREEN TALENT project, where our Project Department leads the project’s Work Package dedicated to Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation.
The conference delegates were intrigued to learn about the international initiative’s aim to build biodiversity and climate capacity at national, trans-European and global levels, with a focus on Widening Countries. The partners at Green Talent: both from academic and non-academic backgrounds, are to contribute expertise, training, and secondments and connect pilot projects to broader EU and global networks. One of the ways the GREEN TALENT consortia does this is by designating four Demonstration Pilots (a.k.a. Demo Hubs) in four Widening countries: Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria, where secondees can benefit from real-world experience and foster partnerships across sectors, while working on scalable solutions to climate and biodiversity challenges, acting as collaboration hubs between academic and non-academic sectors.
Members of the Horizon Europe-funded GREEN TALENT project consortium. Photo courtesy of ESP.
Having only kicked off a year ago and set to run for four years in total, there are many new developments and results yet to be announced from GREEN TALENT, including a Capacity-Building Platform that will allow users to browse various opportunities and events meant to help them improve their skills; to get in touch and foster collaboration with other experts; and to learn about best practices from across different institutions and relevant companies. This is why we strongly recommend visiting the GREEN TALENT, signing up for the project’s newsletter and following the initiative on BlueSky and Linkedin.
GREEN TALENT’s project coordinator, Prof. Dr. Mario V. Balzan, presented at a session dedicated to sustainable and inclusive approaches to ecosystem services tailored to the needs of islands.
In addition to the various GREEN TALENT information brochures and promo materials present at the Pensoft stand, people at the conference could spot quite a few of the project’s members around the ESP venue. There were several talks by GREEN TALENT representatives, including the project’s coordinator: Prof. Dr. Mario V. Balzan (Ecostack Innovations). His talk, part of the session “Islands at the forefront of sustainable and inclusive ecosystem services approaches” examined governance and knowledge gaps in pollinator ecosystem services on small islands, where he used Malta as a case study.
The signature journal stickers by Pensoft were once again a common sight at the ESP conference in Prague. Photo courtesy of ESP.
Ultimately, the conference successfully highlighted the tools needed to drive sustainable development across Europe. Through active contributions to both the overarching policy discussions and the targeted skill-building sessions for the next generation of researchers, Pensoft continued its commitment to making environmental science open, transparent, and globally accessible.
Estuarine Management and Technologies now accepted in the Directory of Open Access Journals: a key scientific index, internationally renowned as a trusted quality filter for open-access journals.
Having EMT accepted by DOAJ means that the journal has successfully passed a thorough assessment concerning its compliance with global standards of ethics, transparency and quality. The evaluation conducted by DOAJ includes an examination of the journal’s peer-review processes, editorial governance, transparency (e.g. publication fees, funding) and ethical policies (e.g. plagiarism, conflicts of interest). For many institutions, funders and libraries, DOAJ is seen as a credibility signal that distinguishes legitimate journals from predatory and/or low-quality ones.
The journal’s recognition comes only two years after the journal was launched as part of a promising joint initiative between a team of scientists headed by Dr. Soufiane Haddout (Ibn Tofail University, Morocco) and the open-access scientific publisher and technology provider Pensoft.
All articles published in the journal are already indexed and browsable on DOAJ. Future papers will be fetched by the platform right after they are published in EMT due to the automated data export workflows powered by Pensoft’s in-house ARPHA Publishing Platform.
Since early 2024, the journal has been seeking to support the exchange of research findings and ideas related to the conservation and sustainable management of estuarine ecosystems by utilising new technology and novel approaches. To further support scientists from around the globe, the journal operates under a Diamond Open Access model, meaning that neither publishing, nor reading incurs charges for authors or readers, respectively.
Today, EMT welcomes studies from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and hydrology, with a focus on interdisciplinary, multifaceted approaches and holistic perspectives. A unique feature of the journal is its diverse range of publication types, such as Education & Communication, Estuarine scientists and Video paper in 180s.
“We are proud to announce that Estuarine Management and Technologies has achieved indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals: our first significant milestone on the path to greater visibility and impact in the global scholarly community,”
said Dr. Soufiane Haddout, on behalf of the journal’s Editorial Board.
“This crucial first step in our indexing journey validates EMT’s commitment to rigorous, transparent, and immediately accessible research on technological innovations for estuarine research, management, and conservation. DOAJ inclusion enhances discoverability for our authors’ work and strengthens our role in advancing interdisciplinary solutions for these vital ecosystems.We are grateful to our authors, reviewers, and the Pensoft team,”
Continuing its tradition, Pensoft Publishers honors its authors and editors with awards for the most cited 3-year-old articles and the most active editors of 2025.
As per tradition, every January we at Pensoft Publishers celebrate the achievements of our authors and editors through our annual award initiative, which spotlights the most cited articles from several flagship journals and recognizes some of our most dedicated editors.
Traditionally, the award is presented in two categories:
Leading authors of the three most cited 3-year-old scientific articles.
The three editors, who have demonstrated the highest level of activity over 2025.
This year, our open-access journals participating in the awards are:
Found on Bluesky, X and Facebook, this journal is designated to accelerate data-rich publications and innovative formats that make biodiversity information easier to discover, reuse, and integrate.
The most impactful papers of 2022 for Biodiversity Data Journal are:
An updated checklist of Azorean arthropods (Arthropoda) (2022). Authored by Borges PAV, Lamelas-Lopez L, Andrade R, Lhoumeau S, Vieira V, Soares AO, Borges I, Boieiro M, Cardoso P, Crespo LCF, Karsholt O, Schülke M, Serrano ARM, Quartau JA, Assing V.
We would also like to extend our sincere gratitude to our editorial team for their commitment throughout 2025. This year, we are proud to recognize the journal’s three most prolific contributors:
Open-access scientific journal that is internationally recognized as a leading outlet for describing new animal species and advancing modern, data-driven zoological taxonomy. Found on Bluesky, X and Facebook.
The most impactful papers of 2022 for ZooKeys are:
Catalogue of the Diptera (Insecta) of Morocco—an annotated checklist, with distributions and a bibliography(2022). By Kettani K, Ebejer MJ, Ackland DM, Bächli G, Barraclough D, Barták M, Carles-Tolrá M, Černý M, Cerretti P, Chandler P, Dakki M, Daugeron C, De Jong H, Dils J, Disney H, Droz B, Evenhuis N, Gatt P, Graciolli G, Grichanov IY, Haenni J-P, Hauser M, Himmi O, MacGowan I, Mathieu B, Mouna M, Munari L, Nartshuk EP, Negrobov OP, Oosterbroek P, Pape T, Pont AC, Popov GV, Rognes K, Skuhravá M, Skuhravý V, Speight M, Tomasovic G, Trari B, Tschorsnig H-P, Vala J-C, von Tschirnhaus M, Wagner R, Whitmore D, Woźnica AJ, Zatwarnicki T, Zwick P.
Benthic megafauna of the western Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Pacific Ocean (2022). Authored by Bribiesca-Contreras G, Dahlgren TG, Amon DJ, Cairns S, Drennan R, Durden JM, Eléaume MP, Hosie AM, Kremenetskaia A, McQuaid K, O’Hara TD, Rabone M, Simon-Lledó E, Smith CR, Watling L, Wiklund H, Glover AG.
We are also delighted to award the three editors who have completed the highest number of editorial tasks over the past year.
A key open-access journal for documenting fungal diversity worldwide and promoting modern mycological research and taxonomy. It can be found on Bluesky, X and Facebook.
PhytoKeys plays a central role in publishing research on global plant diversity and supporting cutting-edge research in plant systematics and evolution. Found on Bluesky, X and Facebook.
We would also like to acknowledge the dedication of our editors in 2025. The three most active editors receiving this year’s recognition are:
Lorenzo Peruzzi
Blanca León
Alexander Sennikov
On behalf of the journals’ publisher, Pensoft, we wish to thank ALL authors, editors, reviewers and readers for their continued support and engagement.
We once again invite our readers to celebrate these contributions and to engage with the featured articles and editor profiles, recognizing the collective effort that supports high-quality, open-access scholarly publishing.
Found on Bluesky and Facebook, this is journal with a vast scope covering all aspects of nature conservation and integrating research on the ecological, evolutionary, economic, and social dimensions of conservation management.
The most impactful papers of 2022 for Nature Conservation are:
In August, Pensoft had the honour of welcoming colleagues from the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) to the headquarters of the open-access scholarly publisher and technology provider in Sofia, Bulgaria. The visit was marked by engaging discussions on scholarly publishing, future innovations, current challenges in academia and potential collaborations.
The highlight of the meeting was the formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, Pensoft’s CEO and founder, and Prof. Dr. Thai Hoang, Vice Chairman of the Scientific Council of Materials Science at VAST and the Editor‑in‑Chief of the Vietnam Journal of Science and Technology.
“This Memorandum of Understanding marks an important step towards fostering international collaboration in scholarly publishing. By combining the expertise and know-how of Pensoft and VAST, we aim to make research more accessible and innovative for communities worldwide,”
commented Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev.
“I am very happy to visit Bulgaria and collaborate with Pensoft Publishers. Here, we know Pensoft and the ARPHA publishing platform for their diverse publishing solutions designed for scientific papers, monographs, academic books and more, as well as their professional and efficient work. All this makes them quite prestigious for us.
Starting from this Memorandum of Understanding, next, we will explore ways to use the ARPHA publishing platform for the publication of Vietnam’s scientific journals, books and other research outputs.”
added Prof. Dr. Thai Hoang.
Over the course of the visit, the group engaged in an enriching dialogue. Guests from VAST offered an in-depth look at their publication outlets and shared insights into the Vietnamese scholarly publishing landscape, as well as the nation’s rich cultural heritage and natural wonders.
In turn, Pensoft offered a comprehensive overview of the company’s journey of over three decades, starting from the launch of the first Pensoft journals and proceeding to the continuous development of several innovative publication platforms and solutions, including the full-featured end-to-end publishing platform ARPHA. Today, there are over 80 open-access peer-reviewed journals, including both Pensoft-launched titles, and many owned and run by research institutions, universities and learned societies from around the globe.
The visit continued beyond the office with the publisher’s management inviting their guests to a several-day trip around the country that covered the cultural and historic hubs of Plovdiv and Koprivshtitsa.
By the end of the visit, both parties agreed that their meeting in Bulgaria underscores their shared vision: to advance open, innovative, and accessible scholarly communication. With the MoU in place, both sides look forward to transforming this mutual understanding into concrete collaborative initiatives.
*
With perfect timing, shortly after the visit, one of the VAST delegates: biologist Prof. Dr. Quang Manh Vu (also affiliated with the Hoa Binh University, Hanoi, Vietnam), in collaboration with his Bulgarian and Vietnamese colleagues: Dr. Ivailo Dedov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) and Dr. Tuan Trieu Anh (Hung Vuong University, Viet Tri City, Vietnam) published a study in Pensoft’s inaugural and flagship journal in zoological systematics: ZooKeys. The research paper lists species of slugs and semi-slugs of the superfamily Helicarionoidea the team collected in North Vietnam in 2023. Amongst the collected specimens, the scientists discovered a new-to-science species of semi-slug they named after Pensoft’s Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, who is himself a biologist and taxonomist by background.
“When I found out I had a new species, I had no hesitation on the name: Ostracolethe penevi. I had been looking forward to naming a curious species after my friend Prof. Lyubomir Penev, a man who made the world look up to Bulgarian science, and someone who has helped me a lot through the years,”
“This newly described species deserves a name that reflects the generosity of nature, the advancement of science, and the enduring friendship between Vietnam and Bulgaria,”
added Prof. Dr. Quang Manh Vu.
***
Additional information:
About Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST):
Founded on 20 May 1975, VAST is Vietnam’s largest multidisciplinary research organization, with branches in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong, Nha Trang, Dalat, and Hue. Its mission spans basic and applied research, the development of high technology, human resource training, and providing scientific advice to the government on pressing national issues.
VAST is known for achieving high output in international peer-reviewed journals; in 2023, more than 2,200 works were published, with nearly 80% in international outlets. The Academy is responsible for several cutting-edge initiatives, including satellite R&D through the Vietnam National Space Center, strategic technology fields aligned with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (e.g. AI, new materials, semiconductors), and large-scale environmental and biodiversity monitoring across the country. Looking forward, VAST has set ambitious goals, including mastering key advanced technologies, increasing technology transfer, enhancing publication impact, strengthening partnerships at home and abroad, and cultivating world-class scientific talent.
“The pursuit of significance is no longer just a technical issue, but a psychological burden that shapes behaviour, distorts judgement, and affects mental well-being.”
A new paper published in European Science Editing highlights the growing psychological strain on researchers driven by pressure to obtain statistically significant results in academic publishing.
Drawing on a decade of experience as an editor and statistical reviewer, Michał Ordak, an Assistant Professor at the Medical University of Warsaw, reveals how institutional, supervisory, and editorial expectations contribute to emotional distress, especially among young scholars striving to meet perceived standards of publishability.
“Between 2015 and 2025, concerns about statistical significance became a recurring theme in author responses during peer review and presubmission communication,” said Ordak. “Authors increasingly expressed fear that using appropriate statistical methods would lead to non-significant findings and reduce their chances of publication.”
This anxiety persists despite a general understanding of statistical principles among researchers. Indeed, the pressure is not due to ignorance, but to visible institutional demands and a belief that publication relies on statistically significant results.
“Requests to adjust methods purely to obtain significant outcomes have become more frequent and emotionally charged, even when such changes compromise analytical rigour,” Ordak notes. “The pursuit of significance is no longer just a technical issue, but a psychological burden that shapes behaviour, distorts judgement, and affects mental well-being.”
The pressure is particularly pronounced among PhD students and early-career researchers, who often rely on statistically significant outcomes to secure publications, funding, and careers.
Ordak describes how editorial feedback is sometimes perceived as a threat rather than an opportunity for scientific rigour, leading some researchers to justify flawed analytical choices based solely on whether the results are statistically significant.
Critical reforms are needed to counter the problem, he suggests: “Editorial teams can help mitigate this anxiety by providing guidance on sound statistical reasoning… and by reassuring authors that rigorous methods are valued regardless of outcome.”
He urges widespread adoption of standards such as the SAMPL (Statistical Analyses and Methods in the Published Literature) guidelines, which remain underused in practice.
Original source
Ordak M (2025) The psychological burden of statistical significance: editorial reflections from 2015 to 2025. European Science Editing 51: e164741. https://doi.org/10.3897/ese.2025.e164741
About European Science Editing
European Science Editing is a diamond open-access journal that publishes original contributions related to scientific and scholarly editing and publishing. The official journal of the European Association of Science Editors, it is published on the ARPHA platform.
We attended the International Congress for Conservation Biology to present the REST-COAST and SELINA Horizon-funded projects, as well as our scholarly journals and books portfolio.
Over 1,200 people from more than 90 countries, including conservation and social science researchers, students, practitioners, government and NGO professionals, policy specialists and leaders from indigenous groups attended the 32nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025), hosted by the SCB Oceania Region from 15th to 19th June 2025 in Brisbane/Meanjin, Australia.
The Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) welcomed over 1,200 participants for the 32nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025) hosted by the SCB Oceania Region. Photo credit: BCEC.
A special focus seen across the talks and overall rhetoric of the event was on indigenous peoples, culture and knowledge, and how they can be recognised and further engaged in the study and protection of the environment in a sustainable and culturally appropriate manner. Other topics popular during the week included biocultural diversity and wildlife trade and traffic.
Throughout the week, the delegates enjoyed three sets of plenary talks, and got to choose from upwards of ten parallel sessions taking place three times each day. Multiple workshops and business meetings would also take place every day around lunch time. Then, each day of the congress would conclude with a poster session at the Exhibition hall. Additionally, multiple social events scheduled throughout the week – such as a nature documentary movie night, a science comedy night, and a closing reception, held amongst the exhibits of the Queensland Museum Kurilpa – would take care of the attendees’ entertainment after long days of talks and presentations.
Our team at Pensoft was proud to join this amazing event as one of the 14 exhibitors at ICCB 2025. At our stand, Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva would invite delegates to elaborate on their scientific interests and latest research endeavours, as well as wants and needs concerning the publication, communication and outreach of their work.
Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva at the ICCB2025 (Brisbane, Australia).
Then, visitors would leave the Pensoft stand with helpful advice concerning scholarly publishing and multiple recommended titles from the Pensoft open-access journal portfolio fitting the scope of their research. If you have met us at any event in the past couple of years, you would also know that it is next to impossible for a visitor of ours to leave without at least one of our signature stickers featuring captioned scientific illustrations of species studied in papers from across our journals.
At every event in the past two years, Pensoft has been handing out stickers featuring detailed scientific illustrations of species studied in papers published in Pensoft’s scholarly portfolio. This is our ‘thank you’ to the authors who have trusted our journals with their work.
Many would also become intrigued to know more about the latest activities and results of the two European Union-funded projects that enjoyed prominent visibility at the Pensoft stand, namely: SELINA (an acronym for Science for Evidence-based and Sustainable Decisions about Natural Capital) and REST-COAST (Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity). At both projects, our team takes pride in leading work packages dedicated to the communication and dissemination of the projects’ outputs.
Having started in 2022 and set to run until 2027, SELINA comprises 50 partner organisations coordinated by the Leibniz University Hannover. This transdisciplinary project provides smart, cost-effective, and nature-based solutions to historic societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. A main objective is to identify biodiversity, ecosystem condition, and ecosystem service factors that can be successfully integrated into decision-making processes in both the public and private sectors.
Most recently, the consortium launched SELINA’s Communities of Practice initiative to promote collaborative learning and knowledge integration across Europe. This digital platform provides a forum for scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and business representatives to exchange knowledge and further engage with its real-life application. On the Communities of Practice webpage, visitors may explore how SELINA is driving change across Europe.
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Meanwhile, the mission of the EU Horizon’s Green Deal-funded REST-COAST is to address today’s challenges to coastal ecosystems caused by a long history of environmental degradation of rivers and coasts. Bringing together 38 European institutions, led by the Catalonia University of Technology UPC-BarcelonaTech (Spain), the project is set to demonstrate to key stakeholders and decision-makers that large-scale restoration of river deltas, estuaries and coastal lagoons is necessary to sustain the delivery of vital ecosystem services.
A prominent output by the REST-COAST project is a policy brief addressing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, and serving to provide scientifically-informed policy recommendations and targets.
At the Pensoft stand, ICCB2025 participants had the opportunity to browse through nine fact sheets produced within the project. Each provides a neat snapshot of the story of one of the pilot sites selected by REST-COAST as representatives of particularly vulnerable hotspots for the main EU regional seas (Baltic, Black, North Atlantic and the Mediterranean). On display was also a recent policy brief addressing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. It serves to provide a concise summary of the issues and challenges at hand, in addition to scientifically-backed policy recommendations and targets.
Both the pilot site factsheets and the policy briefs produced by the consortium are made public in the Media Center on the project website. Further project outputs, including research articles, data papers and project reports, are permanently available from the REST-COAST’s open-science project collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal.
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On the final day, the ICCB 2025 did not disappoint either. The day started with a touching plenary talk by Amy Van Nice of the Wildlife Alliance, where she shared a lot of her own experience as a wildlife rescuer, but also as a human with her own personal battles along the way. Throughout her talk she remained fully transparent about the current situation in wildlife trafficking, which remains, sadly, a crisis yet to be tackled.
The day continued with a full programme of parallel sessions before everyone gathered for the closing session and the closing ceremony, where delegates could look back at the last year in conservation, and learn about what is to come. The closing ceremony also announced and celebrated the SCB 2025 Global Service Awards and the ICCB awards.
Following the ICCB tradition, the organisers also waited until the end of the event to announce the location of the next international congress. It will take place in 2027 some 12,000 km (7,500 miles) away from Brisbane: in Mexico, where it will be jointly hosted by the North American (SCBNA) and the Latin America and Caribbean (SCB-LACA) regions of the Society for Conservation Biology.
There has been an increasing need to support the exchange of research related to the conservation and sustainable management of estuarine ecosystems by means of new-age technologies and approaches.
Where freshwater rivers meet seas and oceans lies a scientifically intriguing and ecologically important type of ecosystem. As estuarine ecosystems provide various and diverse services to humanity and the planet at large, including food security and natural buffers and filters in the events of storms and water pollution, there has been an increasing need to facilitate and support the exchange of research findings and ideas related to their conservation and sustainable management by means of new-age technology and novel approaches.
This is how a team of renowned and passionate scientists, headed by Dr. Soufiane Haddout (Ibn Tofail University, Morocco), took the decision to launch a brand new open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly, aptly titled Estuarine Management and Technologies. They explain the rationale behind the journal in a new editorial, published to mark the official launch of the journal.
Having already worked closely with the scientific publisher and technology provider Pensoft on the fine touches of the concept of the new academic title, the team opted to use Pensoft’s publishing platform of ARPHA. As a result, the new journal provides a seamless, end-to-end publishing experience, encompassing all stages between manuscript submission and article publication, indexation, dissemination and permanent archiving.
Within the collaboration between the journal’s and Pensoft’s teams, Estuarine Management and Technologies will take advantage of various services offered by the ARPHA platform, including full-text automated export in machine-readable and minable JATS-XML format to over 60 relevant databases for scientific literature and data; semantically enriched and multimedia-friendly publications accessible in HTML; and rich statistics about the outreach and usage of each published article and its elements (e.g. figures and tables), including views, downloads, online mentions, and citations.
The publishing platform’s in-house indexing team will continue their close work with the journal’s editors to ensure that the scholarly outlet retains highest quality and integrity, so that it covers the criteria for indexation at additional key databases that require individual evaluation. In the meantime, ARPHA’s technical and editorial teams will provide technical and customer support to authors, editors and reviewers. The marketing and promotion team of ARPHA will be also joining forces with the journal to boost the visibility and image of the new academic title.
During the launch phase, content accepted for publication following double-blinded peer review will be made public right away for free to both authors and readers, where the journal will be operating under a continuous publication model.
Estuarine Management and Technologies welcomes studies from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and hydrology, with a focus on interdisciplinarity, multifaceted approaches and holistic perspectives.
“One crucial aspect of estuarine management is the sustainable use of resources to balance conservation with human needs. Striking this delicate equilibrium requires a holistic understanding of the intricate web of ecological interactions within estuarine environments. Advanced technologies, such as isotopic techniques, environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, can provide insights into the biodiversity of estuarine ecosystems with unprecedented precision,”
explain Dr Haddout and his colleagues in the opening editorial.
Amongst the unique features of the new journal are several additional publication types, such as Expert View, Video Paper, Rapid Communication, Mini Review and Estuarine Scientists, where these have been added to traditional publication outputs (e.g. Research Paper, Review Paper, Data Paper) to foster collaboration between researchers and other stakeholders in the field.
The journal is also running an annual Trailblazing Talent in Estuarine Management and Technologies award intended to recognise and encourage young scientists and engineers at the forefront of cutting-edge research in estuarine management and technologies. Nominations and applications are currently open.
Estuarine Management and Technologies also welcomes applications for guest editors in order to further expand the journal and its immediate expert network.
“I am delighted to see the Estuarine Management and Technologies journal already live on the ARPHA platform. We are confident that this particularly important, yet so far quite overlooked area of study will greatly benefit from this highly promising journal,”
says Prof. Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft and ARPHA.
“I am pleased to announce the launch of the Estuarine Management and Technologies journal on ARPHA, a decision rooted in our commitment to advancing the field. We believe that this strategic partnership will not only enhance the visibility and accessibility of our journal, but will also foster collaboration and innovation within the estuarine management and technologies community. We expect this alliance to be a catalyst for scholarly excellence, providing a robust platform for researchers and practitioners to share insights, address challenges, and propel the field forward. Together with ARPHA, we are confident in the positive impact our journal will have on shaping the future of estuarine management and technologies.”
says Dr. Soufiane Haddout, Editor-in-Chief and founder, Estuarine Management and Technologies.
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You can visit the journal website and sign up for its newsletter from the homepage.
You can also follow Estuarine Management and Technologies onX (formerly Twitter).
Readers at some of the journals published by Pensoft, who have downloaded/printed a publication or ordered a physical copy of a journal issue over the last few weeks, might be in for a surprise concerning the layout of the PDF format of the articles.
Research papers published in ZooKeys demonstrating the former (left) and the current (right) article layout seen in the PDF format.
Even though it’s been years since online publishing has become the norm in how we are consuming information – including scientific publications – we understand that academia is still very much fond of traditional, often paper-based, article layout format: the one you use when accessing a PDF file or a print copy, rather than directly scrolling down through the HTML version of the article.
Even if today large orders of printed volumes from overseas are the exception, rather than the rule, we know we have readers of ours who regularly print manuscripts at home or savе them on their devices. Trends like this have already led to many journals first abandoning the physical- for digital-first, then transitioning to digital-only publication format.
Meanwhile, it is true that needs and demands have fundamentally changed in recent times.
As we speak, readers are accessing PDF files from much higher-quality desktops, in order to skim through as much content as possible.
In the meantime, authors are relying on greater-quality cameras to document their discoveries, while using advanced computational tools capable of generating and analysing extra layers of precise data. While producing more exhaustive research, however, it is also of key importance that their manuscripts are processed and published as rapidly as possible.
So, let’s run through the updates and give you our reasoning for their added value to readers and authors.
Revised opening page
One of the major changes is the one to the format of the first page. By leaving some blank space on the left, we found a dedicated place for important article metadata, i.e. academic editor, date of manuscript submission / acceptance / publication, citation details and licence. As a result, we “cleaned up” the upper part of the page, so that it can better highlight the authors and their affiliations.
Bottom line: The new layout provides a better structure to the opening page to let readers find key article metadata at a glance.
Expand as much – or as little – as comfortable
As you might know, journals published by Pensoft have been coming in different formats and sizes. Now, we have introduced the standard A4 page size, where the text is laid in a single column that has been slightly indented to the right, as seen above. Whenever a figure or a table is used in a manuscript, however, it is expanded onto the whole width of the page.
Before giving our reasons why, let’s see what were the specific problems that we address.
Case study 1
Some of our signature journals, including ZooKeys, PhytoKeys and MycoKeys, have become quite recognisable with their smaller-than-average B5 format, widely appreciated by people who would often be seen carrying around a copy during a conference or an international flight.
However, in recent times, authors began to embrace good practices in research like open sharing of data and code, which resulted in larger and more complex tables. Similarly, their pocket-sized cameras would capture much higher-resolution photos capable of revealing otherwise minute morphological characters. Smaller page size would also mean that often there would be pages between an in-text reference of a figure or a table and the visual itself.
So, here we faced an obvious question: shall we deprive their readers from all those detailed insights into the published studies?
Yet, the A4 format brought up another issue: the lines were too long for the eye comfort of their readers.
What they did was organise their pages into two-column format. While this sounds like a good and quite obvious decision, the format – best known from print newspapers – is pretty inconvenient when accessed digitally. Since the readers would like to zoom in on the PDF page or simply access the article on mobile, they will need to scroll up and down several times per page.
In addition, the production of a two-column text is technologically more challenging, which results in extra production time.
Bottom line: The new layout allows journals to not sacrifice image quality for text readability and vice versa. As a bonus, authors enjoy faster publication for their papers.
Simplified font
If you have a closer look at the PDF file, you would notice that print-ready papers have also switched to a more simplistic – yet easier to the eye – font. Again, the update corresponds to today’s digital-native user behaviour, where readers often access PDF files from devices of various resolutions and skim through the text, as opposed to studying its content in detail.
In fact, the change is hardly new, since the same font has long been utilised for the webpages (HTML format) of the publications across all journals.
Bottom line: The slightly rounder and simplified font prompts readability, thereby allowing for faster and increased consumption of content.
What’s the catch? How about characters and APCs?
While we have been receiving a lot of positive feedback from editors, authors and readers, there has been a concern that the updates would increase the publication charges, wherever these are estimated based on page numbers.
Having calculated the lines and characters in the new layout format, we would like to assure you that there is no increase in the numbers of characters or words between the former and current layout formats. In fact, due to the additional number of lines fitting in an A4 page as opposed to B5, authors might be even up for a deal.
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* At the time of the writing, the new paper layout has not been rolled out at all journals published by Pensoft. However, most of the editorial boards have already confirmed they would like to incorporate the update.
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