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Champion of transparency and rigor in science wins 2026 APE Award for Innovation in Scholarly Communication
London, UK & Berlin, Germany—Wednesday 14 January 2026 (Source: Digital Science)
Dr Anita Bandrowski receiving her award at the Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) conference in Berlin. Photo credit: Photothek/Sebastian Rau.
Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) award celebrates major contribution to open research infrastructure
Digital Science is pleased to announce that Dr Anita Bandrowski, a researcher dedicated to improving rigor and transparency in scientific literature, has won the 2026 APE Award for Innovation in Scholarly Communication.
The award – supported by Digital Science and the Berlin Institute for Scholarly Publishing (BISP) – is given to an individual who has brought innovation in scholarly communication to the world of research and the academic publishing community. Dr Bandrowski received the award at this week’s Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) conference in Berlin.
A neuroscientist based in San Diego, California, Dr Bandrowski is the CEO and Co-founder of the research infrastructure and discovery platform SciCrunch, which aims to improve scientific transparency and reproducibility through the use of persistent identifiers for biological resources, known as research resource identifiers (RRIDs), and the tool SciScore, which helps journals publish more transparent and rigorous papers that adhere to standards, including the RRID standard.
Under her leadership, more than 1,000 journals have adopted the use of RRIDs by their authors, and there are now more than a million discoverable RRIDs in scientific literature. As well as advancing scientific discovery, her work and that of SciCrunch also supports research integrity.
As the winner, Dr Bandrowski receives a €1,000 prize, as well as travel support and free attendance to the APE conference.
“I am grateful for this fantastic award, which highlights not only the key role that RRIDs play in improving reproducibility but also shines a light on the critical role that reagents play in science.”
“The judges were impressed by Anita’s impact on scientific rigor and reproducibility through her leadership at SciCrunch, which was established 10 years ago and has since made an important contribution to the long-term integrity of the scholarly record. Anita herself has been working in the field of open research infrastructure for more than 20 years, and that experience has shone through in her commitment to improving the discovery and reuse of biological resources within scholarly communication. We congratulate Anita and are proud to recognize her achievements with this award.”
See more about the APE Award for Innovation in Scholarly Communication
About Digital Science
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A shared commitment to transparency and responsible data handling
The integration is delivered through a secure API architecture and follows strict data governance practices, including data minimisation, encryption in transit, and time-bound deletion of full-text methods data. Both organizations remain committed to supporting publishers, scholarly societies, and research organizations in raising standards for transparency and reproducibility in scholarly communication.
Publishers can now enable SciScore within EditorialPilot to support improved rigor and transparency in methods reporting.
About Integra
Integra is a global provider of content services and publishing technology for scholarly and educational publishers worldwide. With deep expertise across the publishing lifecycle, Integra enables editorial teams to scale efficiently while safeguarding quality and integrity. EditorialPilot, its flagship AI-powered platform, streamlines manuscript screening, supports research integrity workflows, and helps publishers reduce turnaround times while improving decision confidence.
Learn more at: integranxt.com | editorialpilot.integranxt.com
About SciScore
SciCrunch Inc. is home to platforms like the Resource Identification Initiative, the Antibody Registry, and SciScore. We know the “ingredients” that go into your scientific paper and we work closely with the research community. SciScore won the 2022 Vesalius Innovation Award runner-up prize and was a 2020 ALPSP Innovation Award finalist. For more information, go to: https://www.scicrunch.com/about-us
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SciCrunch Inc. / SciScore
Contact Researchers: Anita Bandrowski | anita@scicrunch.com
Contact Media/Publishers: Martijn Roelandse | martijn@martijnroelandse.dev
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