Being part of the ASAPbio community is an enourmously enriching experience. We know how awesome the community is as we get to work with incredible individuals every day. However, we want the world to know how great our active community members are too, and so earlier this year, we worked with our graphic designer to create a series of digital badges. These enable us to formally recognise specific activities by community members.
What is a Digital Badge?
Digital badges are the 21st century version of traditional credentials such as certificates. In contrast to a digital certificate, a badge is a pictorial representation of the credential award. These digital badges serve as evidence of an individual’s competencies and offer easy verification, enabling potential employers to quickly verify a candidate’s abilities and skills. The digital badge image is connected to metadata where this information is held.
ASAPbio uses badgr (Canvas Badges) to issue our digital badges. This platform uses Open Badges which are digital images embedded with verifiable data about the represented award. They were developed by the Mozilla Foundation in 2011 alongside the Open Badge Standard.
ASAPbio Digital Badges
We have initially designed a series of 9 badges aimed at recognising those participating in our current community initiatives. Each badge is issued with a description, and the criteria that must be met for earning the badge.
The badge that will be shared the most is the one recognising our brilliant ASAPbio Fellows. Initially, these have been issued to our 2024 Fellows.
This badge is issued in recognition of completing the ASAPbio Fellows program. Badge owners have developed skills in advocacy and communication in relation to preprints. Fellows have a sound knowledge of preprints and the preprint landscape within the life sciences.
To earn this badge, individuals must complete the ASAPbio Fellows program, including creating a slide deck and delivering a local talk on the theme of preprints. Individuals must actively engage with the program and demonstrate a solid understanding of the material in relation to the benefits of preprints, myths, genuine concerns and landscape.
Our Community Action Group consists of some of our most active community members who engage in year-long projects. In 2024, they have been busy writing landscaping articles and opinion pieces about preprinting.
This badge signifies that the holder is an active member of the ASAPbio community action group. This group consists of the most active and knowledgeable members of the ASAPbio community who are experts on preprints and scholarly communication.
To earn this badge, an individual must (1) be a member of the ASAPbio community, (2) be a member of the Community Action Group, and (3) actively participate and contribute to CAG activities.
Since 2023, 7 community members have been leading local ASAPbio hubs. Badges have been issued to all current and previous local hub leads.
ASAPbio Local Hub leads are individuals who are responsible for promoting ASAPbio activities and preprints within a local community. Hub leads organise and run activities to further the adoption of preprints within their local area. This badge recognises the activity and expertise of local hub leads with regards to preprints.
To earn this badge, an individual must be an ASAPbio local hub lead and have organized at least two local activities. Individuals may be previous local hub leads.
In 2021, ASAPbio began our Crowd Preprint Review initiative. So far, we have issued badges to our 2023 crowd leads and will soon be issuing badges to our current crowd leads. We hope that these badges in particular are useful for editors seeking reviewers or for societies who may wish to identify leaders in preprint peer review.
Crowd preprint review leads are responsible for coordinating the activities of a virtual crowd of preprint peer reviewers. Crowd leads edit reviews and post them publicly, ensuring a professional high standard review. Crowd leads also set the tone of reviewing for the crowd and provide guidance on how to appropriately and professionally review a preprint.
This badge is awarded to individuals who have successfully led a crowd of preprint reviewers. Individuals must have led a crowd for at least 4 months. Badge holders must publicly post 3 professional and high quality preprint reviews to earn the badge.
In addition to recognising the role of our crowd leads, we have designed badges to reward the activities of crowd members – those conducting preprint reviews. We have badges to recognise 5, 10, 15, and 20 preprint reviews.
Finally, we also designed a digital badge to recognise our truely exceptional community members who have made outstanding contributions to the adoption and advocacy of preprints.
This badge is reserved for a small number of individuals who significantly contribute to the strategic directions and programs at ASAPbio. The badge holder is recognised as an outstanding community member who has a high level of knowledge about preprints and is a strong advocate for change. This individual prioritizes real change in scholarly communication and research culture.
To earn this badge, an individual must significantly contribute to ASAPbio’s core mission in promoting the adoption & advocacy of preprints in the life sciences. This activity must be at the leading edge of adoption and cannot be a simple repetition of current traditional publishing practices. Activities may be detailed in the individual evidence section.
Apply for recognition for past activity with ASAPbio
You can view all of our available badges here. If you have previously participated in a community initiative that is covered by one of the badges above, then please complete this form, or use the button below. We aim to issue badges on a rolling basis.
