The Unjournal

What The Unjournal does

The Unjournal is a US-registered nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2022 (per firmographics) / 2023 (per company history), headquartered in Covina, California, that commissions and pays for open, rigorous expert evaluation of publicly-hosted research. Despite its name, it is not a journal and does not publish original research; instead, it curates a pipeline of quantitative social science, economics, and policy papers, commissions expert evaluators from a 300+ person pool (including 100+ PhDs and numerous professors), and publishes structured ratings, detailed reports, and author responses on PubPub.

The organization's core offerings are (i) Commissioned Evaluations, (ii) the Pivotal Questions initiative (working with impact-focused funders such as GiveWell, Founders Pledge, and Animal Charity Evaluators to identify and answer high-value-of-information questions), (iii) Independent Evaluations (a pilot accepting community-submitted structured evaluations), and (iv) Sponsored Evaluation Services. Underlying workflow tooling is built on third-party platforms: Coda for submissions, evaluator applications, and research tracking; PubPub for publication; GitBook for the knowledge base; and Metaculus for forecasting under Pivotal Questions. The organization has published 88 evaluations between January 2024 and December 2025 covering 55+ papers across global health, AI governance, environmental risks, development economics, and animal welfare.

The Unjournal operates a community-led go-to-market model with no fees charged to researchers. It is funded entirely by grants and donations, primarily from the Survival and Flourishing Fund, the Long-Term Future Fund, and the EA Infrastructure Fund. Evaluators are compensated — historically averaging $450 per evaluation, adjusted to $350 since August 2025. A 6-person core team is supplemented by an 11-member management team, an 18+ person advisory board, and the broader evaluator pool. Strategic partnerships with Center for Open Science, Effective Thesis, and the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences, alongside co-hosted workshops, anchor the organization's position in the open-science ecosystem.

Name

The Unjournal

Legal name

The Unjournal

Website

https://unjournal.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Unjournal is a US nonprofit that commissions and pays for open expert evaluation of quantitative social science, economics, and policy research. It serves researchers, impact-focused funders such as GiveWell, and a 300+ evaluator pool, publishing all evaluations on PubPub.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Evaluation Services

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (51312), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720), Book Publishers (513130), Management Consulting Services (54161)

SIC

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

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYEDAGAFAJ

Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Academic & Scholarly Publishing (Journals, Monographs)

SECONDARYEDAGAFAK

Scholarly Society & Association Publishing

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Academic & Scholarly Publishing (Journals, Monographs)

SECONDARYMPAJABAJ

Research Monographs & University Press Publishing

Media, Entertainment & Sports/Publishing (Books, News, Magazines)/Educational & Academic Publishing (Textbooks, Scholarly, STM)

SECONDARYEDAGAFAL

Conference Proceedings & Research Reports Publishing

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Academic & Scholarly Publishing (Journals, Monographs)

Keywords

• Open research evaluation
• Expert peer review
• Research validation services
• Academic impact assessment
• Scientific evidence evaluation

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Grants and Donations: The Unjournal is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization funded entirely by grants and donations. Primary funders include the Survival and Flourishing Fund, the Long-Term Future Fund, and the EA Infrastructure Fund. The organization does not charge fees for submitting or evaluating research and does not monetize its platform directly.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Unjournal commissions and pays for open, rigorous expert evaluation of publicly-hosted research, focusing on quantitative work in economics, policy, and social science. It evaluates papers and projects prioritized by global impact potential, produces detailed reports, quantified ratings, and synthesis, and publishes everything openly on PubPub. Researchers and authors pay no fees; evaluators are compensated from grants and donations.

Product overview

The Unjournal is not a journal but a nonprofit platform that commissions and pays for open, rigorous expert evaluation of publicly-hosted research. The core offering consists of Commissioned Evaluations, the Pivotal Questions Initiative (a question-first approach working with impact-focused organizations), and an Independent Evaluations pilot project. Research is tracked through a Public Research Database, evaluated by a 300+ member Evaluator Pool, and published on PubPub. The organization rewards quality evaluation work through an annual Evaluator Prize program. For organizations seeking dedicated evaluation, Sponsored Evaluation Services are offered on a limited basis. All evaluations include detailed reports, quantified ratings, and multidimensional percentile assessments.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Commissioned Evaluations Core service in which The Unjournal commissions and pays for open, rigorous expert evaluation of publicly-hosted research papers and projects. Evaluators produce detailed reports, quantified ratings, journal-tier predictions, and claim assessments of research quality, with all outputs published openly on PubPub for use by researchers, funders, and policy-makers.
• Pivotal Questions Initiative A question-first offering that works with impact-focused organizations to identify high-value unanswered questions, operationalize them, connect them to credible research, and commission expert evaluations. Prioritizes questions whose answers could meaningfully change funding or policy decisions for funders, NGOs, and policy-makers.
• Independent Evaluations Pilot project enabling academics, researchers, and students to submit structured evaluations of impactful social-science research. Strong evaluations are posted on The Unjournal's PubPub community, extending the evaluator base beyond the directly commissioned pool.
• Sponsored Evaluation Services Limited, enterprise-style service in which research teams, funders, and practitioners sponsor dedicated evaluation projects focused on specific policy questions, research areas, or outputs. Engagements are scoped in direct consultation with The Unjournal, leveraging the 200+ evaluator pool for tailored expert assessments.
• Public Research Database Public database of research with potential for impact, hosted on Coda, tracking prioritized research papers and projects across global health, AI governance, environmental risks, development economics, and other focus areas. Serves as the pipeline and reference resource for The Unjournal's evaluation program.

Quantifiable outcome

• The Unjournal's water treatment evaluation influenced GiveWell's $145M+ in water quality grants
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, supporting and key stakeholder.

• Center for Open SciencecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-host of the 'Innovations in Research Evaluation, Replicability, and Impact' online workshop (March 2024). Center for Open Science (COS) presents initiatives such as Registered Revisions and broadly supports replicability, research integrity, meta-science, and open science. COS and The Unjournal share a mission to promote transparent, open science practices.
• Effective ThesissupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-host of the 'Innovations in Research Evaluation, Replicability, and Impact' online workshop. Both organizations are aligned in promoting open science and improving research evaluation.
• GiveWellkey stakeholderOthersGiveWell is a major funder and research user of The Unjournal's evaluations. The Unjournal's water treatment evaluation influenced GiveWell's $145M+ in water quality grants. GiveWell program officers have provided feedback on Unjournal evaluation usefulness.
• Founders Pledgekey stakeholderOthersFounders Pledge is an impact-focused organization participating in The Unjournal's Pivotal Questions initiative, helping identify high-value-of-information questions to guide evaluation priorities.
• Animal Charity EvaluatorssupportingOthersAnimal Charity Evaluators participates in the Pivotal Questions initiative to identify research questions with high value of information for animal welfare funding decisions.
• Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Unjournal provided funding and support to the 'Data Management and Sharing, and Open Evaluations Workshop' at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, a workshop sponsored by BITSS, building capacity for open science practices in developing countries.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• PLOS: Large established open-access publisher (PLOS ONE, PLOS Biology) with public peer review history. A scaled incumbent operating in the same open-publishing category The Unjournal targets.

Direct peers

• Research Square: Preprint server with an integrated peer-review service that produces public reviews alongside posted preprints. Directly comparable open-evaluation offering for researchers.
• Sciety: UK-based preprint peer-review service that curates expert reviews of bio/med preprints. Comparable as a service layer providing public expert evaluation outside traditional journals.
• Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS): Research-transparency advocacy organization in the social sciences; The Unjournal has co-sponsored BITSS workshops. Operates in the same meta-research/research-quality space.
• eLife: Open-access journal that publishes peer reviews alongside articles and uses a public-review model. Closest comparable to The Unjournal in championing open, named, public evaluation of research.
• PeerJ: Open-access, peer-reviewed publisher in life and biomedical sciences that emphasizes transparent review and lower-cost publishing models aligned with The Unjournal's open ethos.
• ScienceOpen: Open-access research publishing and discovery network with transparent post-publication peer review. Competes for researchers seeking open evaluation of their work.
• F1000Research: Open peer-review platform publishing reviewer names and reports alongside articles. Operates a similar transparent, post-publication review model that competes for the same researcher mindshare.
• PubPeer: Post-publication peer review platform where researchers publicly comment on and critique published work. Comparable as a public, expert-evaluation channel outside traditional journals.
• Center for Open Science: Active partner of The Unjournal on workshops and aligned open-science mission (Registered Reports, transparency). Both promote open evaluation practices and replication integrity.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCoziAtoBKGSn3Q3PBkgXEEg
• Facebookfacebook.com/61559861164971
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/unjournal

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about The Unjournal