The Researcher to Reader Conference programme of Lightning Talks has now been finalised. There will be 17 five-minute Lightning Talks during the 2-day R2R programme. Talks will take place in the breaks in the plenary programme, and video-recordings will be available for conference participants who may have missed them.  

Topics will include:

• The Contributor Role Taxonomy
• A Global Index of Research Talks
• Medical Trainee Contributions to Scholarly Publishing
• Diversity for Better Science
• Designing Peer Review Around Researchers
• Scientific Publishing in Ukraine
• Research Integrity
• Editorial Integrity
• NGO Born-digital Reports
• Simplifying the Submission Process
• AI-Ready Scholarly Infrastructure
• Publishing with PurposePeer Review Accountability

Speakers will include:

• Ritu Dhand, Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature
• Prof Wolfgang M Kuebler, Professor at Charité–Universitätsmedizin
• Simon Bains, University Librarian at University of Aberdeen
• Dr Milos Cuculovic, Head of Technology Innovation at MDPI
• Dr Frances Pinter, Founder at SUPRR
• Dr Dennis Brown, Chief Science Officer at the American Physiological Society
• Toby Green, Co-founder at Coherent Digital

Researcher to Reader has a very strong programme for 2026 and this has resulted in almost unprecedented registration levels – up 15% on last year. Registration continues to be open for two more weeks.

Mark Carden
5 February 2026

Full details of the talks are given below:

CRediT Where it’s Due?

Scientific discovery is increasingly done by large teams and across different disciplines making clear attribution essential. IOP Publishing has implemented the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) across all its propriety journals, enabling authors to define their roles and ensure transparency. Learn how this change enhances fairness, accountability, and recognition in research publishing.

• Lauren Flintoft, Research Integrity Manager at IOP Publishing

The REF’s Real-World Challenge

The UK government now demands research drives economic growth. But how can universities prove this when their primary output is the journal article? This talk argues that only Real-World Knowledge—born-digital reports from industry and NGOs—can provide the crucial data trail linking academic research to the real economy.

• Toby Green, Co-founder at Coherent Digital

Indexing the World’s Research Talks

We index papers, datasets and code, but not the conversations that shape them. A global index of research talks would unlock faster discovery, more engaging institutional repositories, and richer journal communities. It would also strengthen trust through provenance: who said what, when, in what context, linked directly to the underlying work.

• Ben Kaube, Co-founder at Cassyni

Making Access to Trusted Research Easier

Can you trust the content you read? GetFTR are making it easier: streamlined access to verified articles, with retraction and errata flags built right into references. This lightning talk reveals how this boosts research integrity and global discoverability.

• Hylke Koers, Chief Information Officer at STM Solutions

Medical Trainee Contributions to Scholarly Publishing

Medical trainees pursue scholarly publishing to strengthen residency applications, as academic output enhances individual profiles and program reputation. While residencies value peer-reviewed publications, limited time and experience lead to lower-level evidence. Introducing trainees to other publication types may improve the quality of their scholarship and foster more meaningful novel contributions.

• Prof Liz Lorbeer, Chair, Medical Library, WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine

Ethicality: AI Guardrails for Research Integrity

Ethicality is a one-stop-shop AI toolset that embeds ethical guardrails into the academic publishing workflow. By detecting misconduct signals at submission and keeping humans in the loop, it shifts publishers from reactive investigation to proactive prevention, strengthening research integrity, editorial efficiency, and trust at scale.

• Dr Milos Cuculovic, Head of Technology Innovation at MDPI

Collaboration Powers – Empowers! – Peer Review

Rising submission volumes, research integrity pressures, and rapid technological and workflow changes are reshaping peer review. Embracing this depends on collaboration, empathy and understanding of shared roles across the research publishing ecosystem. This talk shares practical change management insights to build accountability, readiness and trust for sustainable, future-ready peer review.

• Caitlin Meadows, Business Development Manager at PA EDitorial

Editorial Challenges Around AI

As the scholarly publishing landscape evolves, so too do the threats to editorial integrity including manipulated peer review and questionable guest-edited content. Learn how publishers aim to stay ahead of bad actors, the role of technology in protecting trust, and what collaboration across the ecosystem can achieve.

• Lauren Flintoft, Research Integrity Manager at IOP Publishing

Seekers of Sanctuary and Open Research

Seekers of sanctuary include academics and professionals, cut off from their networks. This talk will relate how Aberdeen University Library hosted an International Open Access week event to engage with lived experience individuals, academics, and charity workers to understand the need for access to research in this important context.

• Simon Bains, University Librarian at University of Aberdeen

Liberata: Incentivizing Peer Review and Replication

Academic publishing lacks incentive-aligned quality control and relies on author order and journal brands as proxies for contribution and rigor. Liberata is an open access academic publishing platform that assigns contribution shares to authors on papers, which can subsequently be traded in academic marketplaces for incentivized peer review and replication.

• Patrick Prochazka, Co-founder at Liberata

Scientific Publishing in Ukraine: Conquering Adversity

Ukrainian science is producing some incredible advances – in drone technology and more. Publishing too is defying the odds with 97% of the top 2,000 journals in open access. Hear about this along with opportunities arising from January’s event with top Ukrainian policy makers and practitioners at Oxford Brookes University.

• Dr Frances Pinter, Founder at SUPRR (Supporting Ukrainian Publishing Resilience and Recovery)

Simplifying the Submission Process for Authors

The process of publishing scholarly articles can be frustrating for authors, as well as for publishers and reviewers. I propose changes to the process that can ensure fast and accurate publication. The changes include automated data extraction and collaborative authoring, resulting in full transparency and traceability.

• Dr Kaveh Bazargan, Director at River Valley

Making Scholarly Infrastructure AI-Ready

AI is reshaping scholarly communication, yet fragmentation is increasing complexity and cost. KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) explores how integrated, human-in-the-loop AI workflows—spanning research integrity, accessibility, and next-generation hosting platforms—can prepare trusted scholarly content for AI-driven discovery, licensing, and sustainable future revenue models.

• Ruth Miller, Director of Sales, KGL PubFactory at KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd

Publishing with Purpose: Beyond the Heart

Heart failure research centres on the heart, yet patients often experience shortness of breath, reframing the disease as cardiopulmonary. This illustrates why Publishing with Purpose™  matters.  Society publishers play a critical role in ensuring that clinically important cross-disciplinary insights reach the right audiences, by prioritizing scientific connection over commercial segmentation.

• Prof Wolfgang M Kuebler, Chair at the Institute of Physiology at Charité–Universitätsmedizin

Kriyadocs: Designing Peer Review Around Researchers

Journals need to improve user experience for researchers whilst handling increasing volumes of submissions; working at sufficient speed to meet researcher expectations; and maintaining research integrity. In this talk, we share how Kriyadocs works with scholarly publishers and industry experts to deliver a modern, flexible, robust solution for peer review.

• Jason De Boer, Growth Director at Kriyadocs

Diversity Means Better Science

We explore why broader perspectives, inclusive practices and cross regional partnerships are driving stronger science, better solutions and breakthrough innovation. Discover how diversity is essential to scientific excellence — and what this means for the future of high impact research.

• Ritu Dhand, Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature

Physiology: The Science Life Depends On

How publishing, editorial leadership, partnerships and community networks sustain physiology – the science on which life depends. Drawing on his career as a physiologist and prolific author, the speaker will show how society publishing supports discoveries that translate into real-world health impact: from lifelong disease risk to recovery and cure.

• Dr Dennis Brown, Chief Science Officer at the American Physiological Society