Publons
Enabling researchers to show a more complete record of their impact as an author, journal editor, and peer reviewer.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor investor | €0.0 | round |
| investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
N/A | Acquisition | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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Publons was a platform established to provide academics with a comprehensive and verifiable record of their scholarly contributions. The company was founded in 2012 by Andrew Preston and Daniel Johnston. Preston, who holds a PhD in physics, and Johnston launched the New Zealand-based startup to address what they saw as stagnation in academic peer-reviewing practices and to foster a more collaborative research environment.
The core of Publons' service was a free profile for researchers to consolidate their publications, citation metrics, peer review history, and journal editorial work in one place. The platform automated the aggregation of this data by integrating with key academic databases like Web of Science, ORCID, and bibliographic managers such as EndNote. A key feature was the verification of peer review and editorial activities, which was achieved through partnerships with thousands of scholarly journals. This created a trusted, holistic view of a researcher's impact, which could be used for curriculum vitae, funding applications, and performance evaluations.
For academic publishers, Publons provided tools to discover, screen, and engage peer reviewers, along with data on global peer review trends. The company's business model was centered on these partnerships with publishers. In June 2017, Publons was acquired by Clarivate Analytics, the owner of Web of Science, for a deal valued at up to $16.9 million. This acquisition integrated Publons' peer review data with Clarivate's citation network. Following the acquisition, the founders and their team joined Clarivate to continue developing the platform. In 2019, the ResearcherID system was merged into Publons, further centralizing researchers' academic profiles. As of August 2022, the Publons website began redirecting to Web of Science, integrating its features directly into the parent company's ecosystem.
Keywords: peer review recognition, academic profile, scholarly contributions, researcher impact, citation metrics, verified peer review, journal editor history, Andrew Preston, Daniel Johnston, Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science, ORCID integration, academic publishing, research analytics, author attribution, scholarly communication, researcher tools, academic CV, funding applications, editorial board member