$16M to Keep Scholarly Communication True

How can you be sure a scientific text is scientific enough? The basis of the scientific method is peer reviewing, that other scientists check the described data and stated facts – before publication and of course afterwards. Nonetheless, in the age of “alternative” facts and fake news, not to mention ever more content being published, “research integrity”, while not new, is becoming more and more relevant. As social media is being inundated with fabricated information, serious scientific journals are increasingly prone to submissions produced by “paper mills”, which only resemble genuine research but may actually be plagiarized or just plain made up. 

In an “arms race” (Othman Altalib, Morressier Chief Growth Officer) between the technology that enables the dissemination of falsehoods and publishing tech that makes scientific output traceable and trustworthy, the tool suite Morressier provides scientific institutions with methods for fraud detection and identity verification. This helps to ensure that information published in journals or conferences is in line with the scientific method. The Berlin-based Startup Morressier has now announced a $16.5M series B funding round. As co-founder and CEO Sami Benchekroun puts it, “Science is experiencing an integrity crisis and this investment will help us to double down on our efforts to support academic societies, institutions and publishers in this fight.” The company will use the injection of cash to further develop its products and with an eye to the (much bigger) corporate market.