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How SciPy transformed its proceedings into a modern, intuitive experience
SciPy partnered with Curvenote to reimagine its annual proceedings, creating a web-first experience where researchers, reviewers, and editors engage more deeply with computational science. The new system combines interactive articles with streamlined workflows, making it easier to share discoveries, explore methods, and collaborate across the community—long before work is published as a peer reviewed article.
Overview
Every year, the SciPy community shares the latest advances in open-source scientific computing through its conference proceedings. For years, these insights were confined to static PDFs, making it difficult to explore, interact, or reuse.
In 2024, SciPy partnered with Curvenote to create a web-first proceedings platform. The system integrates computational notebooks and interactive figures, allowing readers to re-run methods and analyses themselves. It also streamlines submission and review, giving authors clear visibility into checks, status, and revisions. Together, these improvements enable authors, reviewers, and readers to engage with the proceedings in ways that reflect the collaborative, open nature of computational science.
“Curvenote’s commitment to enhancing the accessibility and interactivity of the SciPy Proceedings aligns perfectly with our mission to foster open scientific communication.”
— Jim Weiss, Director of Events and Resources at NumFocus
The Challenge
SciPy’s proceedings are a vital record of progress in open-source scientific computing. But their traditional PDF format limited how insights could be shared, explored, or reused. Years of work were effectively locked in static files, stifling the ability to connect citations, methods, and results across the body of research. Discoverability was also a major hurdle—important contributions were buried in PDFs, difficult to search, and disconnected from the tools researchers rely on. The community needed a more dynamic way for readers to engage with methods, and smoother workflows for authors, reviewers, and editors.
““Our proceedings capture some of the most important advances in open-source science, but in PDFs, much of that interactivity, context, and discoverability was lost year-over-year.””
— —SciPy Proceedings Committee Member
The Solution
Working with Curvenote, the SciPy Proceedings Committee built a system centered on interactivity and efficiency.
Key features included:
- Interactive research articles powered by MyST Markdown, with computational notebooks, dynamic figures, and deep-dive links.
- Streamlined workflows with GitHub-powered submissions, automated checks, and clear metadata standards.
- Editorial tools for visibility and efficiency to manage the full process from submission to final article.
- A living archive of 15+ years of proceedings migrated into a web-native environment, linking past and present research for easier discovery.
Citable, reusable outputs with CrossRef DOIs and ORCID integrations.
“The adoption of Curvenote submission system and MyST Markdown represents a major step forward in our efforts to facilitate a more efficient, collaborative, and engaging publication process. This collaboration not only elevates the quality of our proceedings but also opens up new possibilities for interactive, computational and web-first scientific communication.”
— Chris Calloway, 2024 Proceedings Co-Chair for SciPy
The Impact
The transition delivered immediate results:
- 2x increase in reader engagement compared to 2023
- 39 new articles published in 2024, on top of
- 354 total papers preserving 15 years of scientific progress
- A smoother, less time-consuming process reported by authors and reviewers
For the first time, the proceedings were a place to interact with the work—read it, run it, reuse it.
What's Next
Looking ahead, SciPy and Curvenote plan to:
- Expand interactivity with new tools for exploring research
- Further streamline workflows to reduce friction for authors, reviewers and editors
- Continue building proceedings system for better filtering and search that grows with the community
Takeaways
With Curvenote, SciPy:
- Launched a web-first proceedings platform that reflects the collaborative nature of computational science
- Made articles interactive with notebooks, dynamic figures, and methods readers can re-run and interact with directly
- Created a connected archive — 18+ years of research preserved and discoverable online
- Streamlined publishing workflows for authors, reviewers, and editors
- Raised the bar for engagement — setting a new standard for how communities share and build on open science
Ready to rethink publishing?