Blockchain publishing project expands

Two major academic publishers have joined a pilot project examining the use of blockchain technologies in the peer-review process.

Taylor & Francis and Cambridge University Press were announced on 26 April as members of the Blockchain for Peer Review project. The initiative was launched in March by the publisher Springer Nature and the technology companies Katalysis and Digital Science.

A blockchain is a distributed database that can be duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers with data that are publicly available and easily verifiable. Originally developed for use with digital currencies such as Bitcoin, the technology is being explored as a potential solution to many of the problems facing electronic publishing, notably research reproducibility and recognising the work of reviewers.