ALPSP has announced the winners of the ALPSP Awards 2026, recognising outstanding contributions, impact and innovation across scholarly publishing, at its Annual Conference dinner held on 10 September at The Manchester Deansgate Hotel, UK. 

• The ALPSP Award for Contribution to Scholarly Publishing was presented to O. Claire Moulton.  
• Research4Life were confirmed as the winner of the ALPSP Impact Award, with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) awarded highly commended.  
• Imagetwin were announced as the winner of the ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing with AI-powered Duplicate Peer Review Detection Tool – (Duplicate Review Checker) awarded highly commended. 

ALPSP Award for Contribution to Scholarly Publishing 

This award recognises an individual or organisation who has made a major contribution to scholarly publishing. Sarah Fricker, Chair of ALPSP and Group Head of Legal for the Institute of Physics Group presented this year’s award on behalf of the ALPSP Board of Directors. 

Winner: O. Claire Moulton 

Claire started her career at Current Science before becoming part of Elsevier Science London. She progressed from running one journal to managing a small team then was asked to lead the new ‘Current Trends’ group which brought together the Current Opinion, Trends and Drug Discovery titles and a team of 50+ staff. 

In 2007, she made the significant decision to join not-for-profit publisher The Company of Biologists in Cambridge (first as their Publisher and more recently as CEO). With a PhD in developmental biology, she was delighted to be working with journals that had inspired her earlier research.  

During her tenure, in addition to her journal work, she’s managed a number of launches including preLights (a community of ECRs curating preprint highlights) and The Forest of Biologists (a biopositive publishing initiative), supporting the company rebrand, visually bringing the journals and the charitable arm of The Company of Biologists together, as well as leading the Company’s centenary celebrations during 2025. Under Claire’s leadership, The Company of Biologists grew both in numbers and in professionalism and Claire has served as a mentor to many individuals active today in the scholarly publishing community. 

Claire has also been a strong supporter of the wider publishing community, being a founding member of the Society Publishers’ Coalition and a volunteer with ALPSP, from committee membership to webinar appearances and career hub videos through to our conference organising committee 2024.  

Her willingness to engage with emerging trends, generously share industry knowledge and support the wider publishing community led to this recognition for her significant contributions to scholarly publishing. 

The ALPSP Impact Award  

This award, sponsored by PA EDitorial, celebrates significant initiatives, projects or collaborations within scholarly communication and academic research that are making a positive difference.  

Winner: Research4Life  

Researchers in low- and middle-income countries represent 85% of the world’s population yet contribute a disproportionately small share of global scientific output, largely due to limited access to research. Research4Life addresses this gap through a global partnership that enables researchers to access, use, and contribute to knowledge. It provides free or lowcost access to over 250,000 resources across 12,000+ institutions in 120 countries, combined with training and locally embedded support. Independent analysis links participation with up to a 75% increase in research output. By broadening participation in knowledge production, Research4Life supports a more equitable global publishing ecosystem. 

Highly Commended: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 

In May 2025, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), in collaboration with Project MUSE, launched the USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 as a fully searchable, open access digital publication. The authoritative resource on Nazi persecutory sites, the new digital version of the Encyclopedia offers users the ability to dynamically engage with empirically grounded research that documents tens of thousands of camps, ghettos, and other sites of persecution operated by the Nazi regime and its allies, while also visualizing the camp system through a new interactive map. 

The ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing 

This award, also sponsored by PA EDitorial, has run for a number of years and celebrates any new development, product, service, launch or project which is both innovative and of significant value to scholarly communication. 

Winner: Imagetwin 

Imagetwin is an AI-powered image integrity screening tool for publishers, universities, and research organisations to identify problematic images in scientific manuscripts. The software detects duplicated, manipulated, plagiarised and AI-generated images across publications. Imagetwin extracts figures from scanned manuscripts and compares them against a database of over 120 million academic images within seconds. By integrating directly into editorial and manuscript submission workflows (e.g., ScholarOne), we enable scalable, automated image screening prior to publication. Imagetwin not only detects misconduct but also helps maintain public trust in science and avoid costly reputational damage from retractions. 

Highly Commended: AI-powered Duplicate Peer Review Detection Tool – (Duplicate Review Checker) 

IOP Publishing has developed a proprietary AI-powered tool to detect duplicate peer review reports, directly addressing a growing threat to research integrity. Fully integrated into IOPP’s editorial infrastructure, the tool uses machine learning to identify reviewer report similarities at scale, flagging unethical practices such as report reuse under different identities. Since launch, it has processed around half a million reports and identified more than 2,400 highly similar reviews. By combining automation, confidentiality and editorial oversight, the tool strengthens trust in peer review while offering a model that other publishers can use to develop similar tools. 

Our finalists for 2026 were:  

• Alchemist Review Journal Fit 
• Thoth Open Metadata 
• FigureTwo 

David Sommer, Chair of the judging panel, and co-founder at Kudos commented:     
“The judges are always excited to review the range of innovative and impactful submissions we received this year. The finalists demonstrated some really interesting and breakthrough ideas. I know our finalists were excited to showcase these at the conference, and we offer our congratulations to all the finalists.” 

ALPSP Rising Stars 

Three winners were unveiled for the ALPSP Rising Star Awards, sponsored by Publishers’ Licensing Services.  

• Arunima Aditya, Customer Education Manager, Wiley 
• Emma Ferguson, Senior Commissioning Editor, Journals, Emerald Publishing 
• Jacob Weller, Peer Review Operations Specialist, PLOS 

For more information about all the 2026 awards, please visit the ALPSP website. 

---

About ALPSP 

ALPSP is the international trade association which supports and represents not-for-profit organizations that publish scholarly and professional content, and those that work with them. Membership of ALPSP is for the whole organization so all employees can take advantage of the benefits on offer. ALPSP is proud to have over 300 member organisations across 35 countries. Find out more about member benefits and how to join the ALPSP community. 

For further information, please get in touch or visit our website. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. 

About PA EDitorial

PA EDitorial Ltd is a leading publishing and editorial services company serving the global academic publishing community. Established in 2011, the company has rapidly grown to become a trusted name in the industry, known for its commitment to quality, innovation, and client satisfaction. PA EDitorial Ltd offers a comprehensive range of editorial services designed to meet the diverse needs of authors, publishers, academic institutions, and corporate clients.  

About Publishers’ Licensing Services 

Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) has provided rights and licensing services to the publishing industry since 1981. A non-profit collective management organisation, owned and directed by the four main UK publishing trade associations, our primary role is to maximise the value of published content, enable its legitimate re-use, and protect copyright through effective collective licensing, permissions and rights management services.