One more try - getting PEvO back to live?

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A long time has passed since the last activity on PEvO - Publish and Evaluate Onchain/(Online). That much, a lot of the community might not even be aware the idea existed.

To quote the introductory post

Pevo will be a decentral long-term digital archive for scholarly publishing through the open access paradigm and a web platform facilitating continuous open evaluation.

If you are a in any way involved with the scientific publishing process, bare with me. You might be exactly the person I've been looking for since then...


To me, the internet has always been a tool to distribute knowledge. At one point many years ago I asked myself why scientific publishing still happens in print magazines, and the simple answer has been that links aren't a reliable source to quote from, as the underlying content might change.

Since then, the problems with centralized publishers have become more clear, with pricing models which make universities stop their subscriptions, countries like Iran being denied access due to sanctions, and results like illegal mirrors (scihub) and pre-publishing servers run by individual universities at a huge cost. Not even starting to talk about the lengthy and costly peer-review process, and the general ineffectiveness of the system in revoking results which have shown false.


PEvO has been an attempt to introduce blockchain technology in combination with decentralized storage like IPFS to create a new way of scientific publishing and discourse. It was started in April 2016, and in the following months we have been able to write a whitepaper, create a logo and design, website, as well as introducing it to several key figures in the science and decentralization fields. Unfortunately we didn't get the necessary traction in the scientific community - the project needs people from different scientific fields to work together, to create a publishing experience that works, or it won't even be used. We have tried to approach scientists at conventions, but when the word blockchain came up they either switched their focus to getting funding through it (which isn't part of the concept at all), or liked the idea but were too busy with their own projects (and publications in magazines) to seriously contribute.


This is a last attempt to get back on track. The hive community has developed, grown, and spread. Are there people here who are interested in changing how scientists work, make the process more transparent, dynamic, decentralized? If so, show yourself in the comments, maybe join our Discord (that's dead though...), and who knows - maybe the time for the idea has come? I'd sure be happy to work on it again.



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16 comments
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Is there any chance of getting some airtime on any of the science podcasts out there?

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(Edited)

We have tried to approach scientists at conventions, but when the word blockchain came up they either switched their focus to getting funding through it..

I think, that is not the right approach - I believe the scientists publish something following some guidelines by some institutions - so they are kind of tied by those guidelines. How about getting to some institutions which accept these research publications ?

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Which institutions do you mean? I met with the heads of an university in Germany once, but they didn't like the whole online thing. They also had subscriptions to paper newspapers, so that might have been bad luck...

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When I joined Steem this exact usecase was on top of my mind. My hope was that STEM is attracting the people that are required to start off but now hear for the first time of PEvO. I am still seriously interested in the topic, although my scientific live is over and I am not directly involved in scientific publication anymore.

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Hi, nice to meet you! The original whitepaper is still available here if you want to have a look. I'd be very happy to hear your thoughts on it. That you're not directly involved any more is a plus in my view ;)

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Hey there. I came across this post when searching for SciHub related content and what's going on with that open forum for science. I wanted to see if there was anyone here on Hive either talking about it, doing something about it or had a technology that might help solve it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/nc27fv/rescue_mission_for_scihub_and_open_science_we_are/

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All we (I) have for now is an idea. If you know channels to bring it to the right people I'd be incredibly happy to pick up work on it again.

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Have you thought about putting it on Hive’s DAO proposal system? Seems like this is an excellent opportunity.

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Financing is not the issue. What's needed are people who know the publishing process, ideally from different fields, and can help to flesh out the algorithms for validity/reputation. If the idea is viable as is, maybe there are flaws and something more simple would be sufficient.

Unfortunately, all the scientists we managed to get in contact with over the years are more concerned about funding and credit points than changing the system from ground up. Which is understandable, but proved to be the biggest road block for the project.

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Thanks for making me aware of the current development, time to use the hashtag I guess
https://twitter.com/pharesim_/status/1408937742168465416

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I liked it! Have you reached out to the STEM communities here on Hive? Maybe you'd find some more like minded scientists.

STEM Social

STEM Geeks

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Of course. @lemouth has been very interested, as have been some of the authors of quoted papers from the whitepaper and a few people on conferences we attended to find contributors. But all scientists are busy sciencing.

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I am personally also busy by surviving the pandemic and its associated management at the university level. In my case, my life has drastically changed on February-March 2020. I am still completely overwhelmed and am looking forward to the end of this academic year, in a month...

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