Overleaf

Presented by John Lees-Miller Nominated by Digital Science   Overleaf is a collaborative writing and publishing platform that makes science and research faster and more efficient by letting researchers collaborate more easily and more effectively on their papers, from idea to writing to review to publication.

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JOHN LEES-MILLER, OVERLEAF

Daniel Hook, DIGITAL SCIENCE

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Overleaf was founded by two mathematicians in 2012. They had been working on a project involving many partners to build autonomous cars, and work between team members had been challenging. So they built a light-weight collaboration system and used it for writing their research papers. It was simple to use - all one needed was a web browser. Overleaf is a naturally viral product with lower barriers to entry than other solutions that has gained a user community of over two million authors worldwide who have created over 10 million documents to date. Through their work with publishers and institutions, Overleaf now wants to translate this virality into a B2B business model, with its own built-in network effects and advanced metrics. Society increasingly looks to science for solutions to today’s most pressing social challenges, such as complex health issues, an ageing population, digital transformation and climate change. Overleaf wants to meet this need for faster, more open, more trustworthy science that is also more meaningful to citizens.