Overview and information for the "From Tools to Adoption: A Path to Modular and Interactive Scientific Publishing" meeting
We are convening a 2.5 day, in-person implementation sprint in November 2025 to unify modular scientific publishing tools around a shared reference implementation. This working meeting will convene developers of leading modular publishing tools to create a working, federated reference architecture using real bioRxiv content and deploying through the newly created openRxiv labs. The goal is to resolve technical gaps, demonstrate live interoperability, and lay the foundation for modular, machine-readable research publishing. The sprint is preceded by a virtual kickoff and includes discussions and activities at CZI's Open Science Meeting and JupyterCon. This meeting is designed to unlock adoption by showing, not telling, how modular publishing can work in practice today.
Our approach for the workshop is to convene a small group of around 20 leaders and tool makers in open science to align on a collective vision/demonstrations and implementations to drive meaningful change. Given the small size and implementation focus, this meeting is by invitation only. Summaries and outcomes will be shared publicly.
This meeting is funded by the Meeting Fund of The Navigation Fund Open Science Program. DOI 10.71707, dates and location updated in this description.
Dates: November 6-8th
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Through the Navigation Fund support, travel and lodging for this meeting will be covered. See more on the Travel and Logistics page.
Scientific content remains trapped in static formats that limit reuse, attribution, and machine readability, despite the availability of modern tooling that makes this possible and better matches how scientists conduct research. This initiative, led by openRxiv and Continuous Science Foundation, addresses this challenge through practical implementation rather than consensus-driven standardization. The project will convene developers of leading modular publishing tools—MyST, Quarto, Curvenote, and Kotahi—to create a working, federated reference architecture using real bioRxiv content and deploying through the newly created openRxiv labs. Through a facilitated virtual meeting followed by a 2.5-day in-person implementation sprint, participants will develop shared interoperability standards and demonstrate live reuse of scientific content. Following the successful ipynb model, the approach prioritizes working software over abstract frameworks. Key deliverables include a reference implementation demonstrating cross-platform interoperability, pilot deployments using bioRxiv articles, progress updates at the CZI Open Science Meeting, and adoption materials for publishers and platforms. This implementation-first approach represents a concrete step toward modular publishing that meets current needs while preparing for the LLM era.
Two and a half day, in person implementation meeting. This group of developers will convene for 2.5 days in a facilitated meeting with the following structure.
Day 1 — Nov 6
9am - 12pm: The first half day of the meeting will focus on discussion, following from our virtual meeting, identifying where there are coordinated development opportunities and small groups who will work together.
12-1pm: Lunch
1pm - 4:30pm: Small group discussions or beginning of exploring code together.
4:30-5pm: Lightning demos of what people are working on.
5-7pm: Rest and Dinner.
7-9pm: Informal hacker time. Time to work on some things together, or continue discussions or exploration.
Day 2 — Nov 7
9am-10am: Recap from the previous day. What came up that we need to discuss or resolve?
10am-11:30am: Have discussion or work based on areas of friction, frustration, tension or disagreement that we observed.
11:30-12:00pm Lightning demos of what people are working on.
12-3: Lunch and hike or do other outdoor thing together
3-5pm: Break into areas of agreement where we can move forward and areas of disagreement where we’ll still need to discuss, code or explore.
5-7pm: Rest and Dinner.
7-9pm: Informal hacker time and demos.
Day 3 — Nov 8
9-10:30am: Demo and discuss where we are
10:30-12pm: Plan next steps and areas where we’ll communicate with each other
Participants confirmed for the meeting so far.
| Name | Organization |
|---|---|
| Adam Hyde | Coko/Kotahi |
| Agah Karakuzu | NeuroLibre |
| Anton Molina | b.next |
| Carlos Scheidegger | Quarto/Posit |
| Carol Willing | Willing Consulting |
| Chris Wilkinson | PreReview |
| Franklin Koch | Curvenote, Jupyter |
| Jason Priem | OpenAlex |
| John Bohannon | alphaXiv |
| John Kaye | octopus |
| Kevin-John Black | bioRxiv/openRxiv |
| Matt Akamatsu | DiscourseGraphs |
| Michael Markie | eLife |
| Milton Pividori | University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus |
| Monica Granados | Creative Commons |
| Nokome Bentley | Stencila |
| Paul Shannon | eLife |
| Raj Palleti | alphaXiv |
| Rose Reatherford | PLOS |
| Rowan Cockett | CSF, Curvenote, Jupyter |
| Steinn Sigurdsson | arXiv |
| Taylor Campbell | Creative Commons |
| Ted Roeder | bioRxiv/openRxiv |
| Tom Scott | PLOS |
| Tony Alves | HighWire |
| Tracy Teal | openRxiv |
Groups/people invited who aren't able to attend (we'll follow up with folks after the meeting): Stephan Van der Walt (Jupyter), Chris Hartgerink (ResearchEquals), Trevor Manz (AnyWidget, Marimo), Gabe Stein (KnowledgeFutures), Chris Holdgraf / Greg Caporaso (MyST Steering Council)