3D Publishing and Peer Review Workshop

On April 12th, 2024 the PURE3D team held a workshop at Maastricht University as part of our OPER3D research. The aim of this workshop was to gather academics who have experience in open science and publishing atypical forms of scholarship. Together we analysed the challenges and opportunities of 3D scholarly publishing and explored best practices in peer reviewing. They provided insights into the evaluation systems in their respective institutions and how 3D or multimodal publications are valued.

Before the workshop, the participants were provided with a completed 3D scholarly edition to peer-review. An evaluation form was given based on the criteria of research value and user experience. Various design thinking activities were then held throughout the day. This included a value-walk where participants rated how challenging they found reviewing this mode of scholarship, how engaging they found the edition, and how this type of scholarship would be recognised and rewarded within their institutions. A general discussion was held on the evaluation criteria that they used to review the editions, and what could be improved upon. The day concluded with participants working together to create an “ideal workflow” for the evaluation stage of a 3D scholarly publication.

Their feedback allowed us to gain insight into the needs of different interest groups, including 3D authors, publishers and reviewers, who wish to see assured 3D publications being used for research. The workflows created during this workshop are being built upon to implement the evaluations of 3D scholarly editions in the PURE3D infrastructure.