What Sciencenow Group does

Sciencenow Group (formerly Science Navigation Group and Current Science Group) is a privately-held UK holding company founded in 1979 by Vitek Tracz and headquartered in Harrow, Middlesex, England. The group operates a recurring model of inventing, building, and establishing new scientific communication and professional services, then divesting commercially viable entities and reinvesting proceeds in new ventures. Across more than four decades the group has incubated, scaled, and in many cases sold platforms that materially shaped scientific publishing — including the "Current Opinion in..." review journal format, BioMedNet (one of the earliest web communities for scientists), BioMed Central (open access publishing), Faculty Opinions/F1000 (post-publication peer review), Sciwheel (research writing and reference management), F1000 Research (open research publishing), and TelMap (first mobile-phone navigation service). The group's current central operating activity is Web of Stories, a free video platform launched in 2003 that records and distributes detailed life stories of influential scientists, doctors, artists, and other notable figures, organized into thematic channels including the flagship "Lives" channel. Retained subsidiaries (F1000 Research, Faculty Opinions, Sciwheel) continue to address the scientific research community alongside Web of Stories.

The group's underlying technology is a portfolio of digital content and software platforms — principally a video hosting and channel-organization system for Web of Stories, journal and database publishing infrastructure for the legacy and retained science brands, and a SaaS-style research productivity toolset for Sciwheel. Distribution is direct-to-consumer via webofstories.com and a multi-channel social presence (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn). The group employs 101–250 people and is led by founder-chairman Vitek Tracz and group CEO Andrew Crompton. A landmark external partnership with the NIH — Tracz's proposal of an Open Access publishing scheme that led to the launch of PubMed Central — remains a defining strategic event in the group's history.

Revenue mechanics are heterogeneous and not publicly disclosed. Web of Stories operates on a freemium/free-access basis with no disclosed pricing; legacy subscription and recurring-revenue streams have historically come from publishing and content licensing (journals, databases); and licensing/royalty income has historically derived from mobile navigation and mapping products such as TelMap. Customer segments span the general public and lifelong learners consuming video content via Web of Stories, and the scientific research community (scientists, researchers, doctors, academics in biology and medicine) using the retained publishing, peer review, and research-writing products. Pricing is not publicly disclosed, and no enterprise customer logos or concentration signals are present in the source data.

Name

Sciencenow Group

Legal name

Sciencenow Group

Website

https://sciencenow.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Publishing & Research Communications

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Book Publishers (513130), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169), Directory and Mailing List Publishers (513140)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Miscellaneous Publishing (2741), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Knowledge Management & Scientific Collaboration / Literature Intelligence (HLAGAJAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Scientific & Laboratory Reference (Chemistry, Biology, Physics; Methods & Protocols) (EDAGAGAG), Medical Affairs Scientific Communications (MSL Support/Scientific Response) (HLAGALAF), Biology & Life Science Enrichment (Biotech, Genetics, Anatomy) (EDAMABAF)

Keywords

• Scientific publishing services
• Video life stories
• Research collaboration tools
• Biomedical community platforms
• Open access publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Web of Stories: The flagship platform provides free access to video life stories while potentially monetizing through premium content or partnerships.
2. Publishing and content licensing: Historical revenue from publishing medical textbooks, journals, and databases including the Investigational Drugs Database and Current Opinion journals.
3. Navigation and mobile services: Revenue from mobile navigation services (TelMap), mapping services, and location-based data products.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Sciencenow Group operates Web of Stories, a free online video archive hosting commissioned life-story recordings from leading scientists, thinkers, and cultural figures. Alongside this central consumer-facing platform, the group runs a portfolio of scientific communications businesses — including Faculty Opinions, F1000 Research, and Sciwheel — that deliver post-publication peer review, open-access publishing, and reference management tools to the research community.

Product overview

Sciencenow Group is a portfolio of publishing and web services companies. The central activity is Web of Stories, a video platform where influential figures tell their life stories. The group has historically developed and later sold various science communication services including BioMedNet (early web community for scientists), BioMed Central (open access publishing), Faculty Opinions/F1000 (post-publication peer review), F1000 Research (research publishing), and Sciwheel (research writing tools). Once companies become commercially viable, the group's tradition is to sell them and reinvest in new ventures.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Web of Stories Free online video platform hosting commissioned life-story recordings from leading scientists, thinkers, and cultural figures, offered to the general public as an educational archive.
• Faculty Opinions Post-publication peer-review and expert recommendation service that rates and comments on biomedical research papers, used by researchers, clinicians, and life-sciences institutions.
• F1000 Research Open-access research publishing platform using transparent post-publication peer review, serving life-sciences researchers and institutions seeking rapid, open dissemination of findings.
• Sciwheel Reference management and collaborative research-writing tool for researchers and research teams to organize citations, annotate references, and co-author manuscripts.
• BioMedNet Online biomedical community and information service for life-sciences researchers, providing news, reviews, job listings, and a member directory.
• BioMed Central Open-access scientific publishing platform that pioneered the open-access model for peer-reviewed biomedical journals (later divested to Springer Nature).
• TelMap Branded mobile navigation and mapping service offering maps, directions, and location-based services to mobile consumers.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• NIH (National Institutes of Health)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVitek Tracz proposed the Open Access publishing scheme to NIH, which led to the launch of PubMed Central. This was a pivotal collaboration that established the foundation for modern open access scientific publishing.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Wiley: Diversified scientific, technical, and medical publisher with a large journal portfolio and growing research tools business. Competes with Sciwheel on reference management and with F1000 Research on publishing.
• Elsevier (RELX): Largest commercial scientific publisher and the dominant incumbent in scholarly journals, competing across the full stack the group targets via F1000 Research, Faculty Opinions, and Sciwheel.
• Springer Nature: Major scientific publisher that acquired BioMed Central from the Sciencenow Group. It now owns one of the group's former flagship assets and competes with its remaining open access and peer review products.

Emerging players

• Academia.edu: Academic social network for researchers to share papers and connect. Comparable to the historical BioMedNet community concept and adjacent to Faculty Opinions' researcher-facing tools.
• ResearchGate: Academic social network for scientists to share and discuss research, conceptually similar to the group's former BioMedNet community. Overlaps with the group's scientific collaboration ambitions.

Direct peers

• StoryCorps: Non-profit oral history project recording life stories on video and audio. The closest conceptual analog to Web of Stories in terms of preserving and distributing first-person life narratives from notable individuals.
• PLOS (Public Library of Science): Non-profit open access scientific publisher founded in 2000 with a mission similar to BioMed Central. PLOS directly competes with the group's open access publishing legacy and shares the same goal of transforming scholarly communication.
• MasterClass: Subscription video platform featuring notable experts and personalities teaching and sharing their craft. Closest commercial analog to Web of Stories in terms of video content from notable figures delivered to a broad audience.
• eLife Sciences Publications: Open access journal in life sciences with an innovative peer review model. eLife competes directly with F1000 Research and Faculty Opinions in the post-publication and open peer review space.
• Frontiers Media: Open access scientific publisher with peer review and research platforms overlapping F1000 Research and Faculty Opinions. Both target the same biomedical researcher audience with open publishing models.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/webofstories
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/webofstories
• Facebookfacebook.com/pages/Web-of-Stories/297223827702
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/science-navigation-group

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sciencenow Group