Industry

Scientific Publishing

Client

Borealis Publishing

Role

Lead Design Engineer

Goodbye Gatekeepers, Hello Breakthroughs: Borealis

Designing Research to Be Seen Everywhere, Not Just Shelved

Designing Research to Be Seen Everywhere, Not Just Shelved

Borealis AcademicStream Publishing is more than just a platform — it’s a bold step toward rethinking how knowledge is shared with the world.

For authors, it provides a trusted space to submit and refine groundbreaking research. For peer reviewers, it enables transparent, anonymous collaboration that strengthens academic integrity. For editors, it streamlines oversight with secure workflows and automated checks. For readers and the general public, it opens the door to credible, peer-validated research that advances science and society.

By designing and engineering the MVP, I set the foundation for a publishing house unlike anything before it: one that empowers every role in the research ecosystem to contribute meaningfully, and ensures that the world’s most important ideas reach the people who need them most.

Design Goal

Design Goal

How might I create an academic publishing platform where trust, transparency, and compensation are built into the user experience?

Designed and Developed the Landing Pages

Challenge: The platform needed a polished landing page that could transform static Figma designs into a reliable and scalable front-end experience.
Action: I built the landing pages using TypeScript, ensuring type safety, reducing runtime errors, and creating a stable foundation for future features.
Impact: This delivered a professional, bug-resistant user interface that could grow with the platform while maintaining performance and reliability.

Architected the Peer Review Workflow

Challenge: Traditional peer review systems often create bottlenecks with limited reviewer collaboration and lack of transparency in feedback.
Action: I integrated Collabora Office, an open-source tool, to enable reviewers to anonymously comment directly on manuscripts. This gave reviewers a way to highlight issues, suggest improvements, and discuss feedback in context — all while maintaining confidentiality.
Impact: Simplified the peer review process by fostering real-time collaboration, improving the quality of reviewer feedback, and ensuring authors received more actionable insights without compromising anonymity.

Implemented Communication & Collaboration System

Challenge: Authors, editors, and reviewers lacked an intuitive way to communicate without breaking confidentiality or creating silos.
Action: I developed a messaging layer that allowed controlled interactions: editor-to-author, reviewer-to-reviewer, and author-to-editor, with permissions tailored to protect anonymity.
Impact: Smoothed collaboration across roles, reduced confusion during revision cycles, and increased transparency in decision-making without sacrificing reviewer confidentiality.

Orchestrated Editorial Oversight & Integrity User Flow

Challenge: Editors needed a structured way to screen manuscripts for quality, relevance, and plagiarism without slowing down publication timelines.
Action: I integrated a plagiarism detection API (similar to Turnitin/iThenticate) and designed an editor dashboard for initial checks, reviewer assignment, and conflict mediation.
Impact: Empowered editors to maintain high academic integrity, catching plagiarism early while streamlining editorial decision-making.

Designed and Developed the Landing Pages

Challenge: The platform needed a polished landing page that could transform static Figma designs into a reliable and scalable front-end experience.
Action: I built the landing pages using TypeScript, ensuring type safety, reducing runtime errors, and creating a stable foundation for future features.
Impact: This delivered a professional, bug-resistant user interface that could grow with the platform while maintaining performance and reliability.

Architected the Peer Review Workflow

Challenge: Traditional peer review systems often create bottlenecks with limited reviewer collaboration and lack of transparency in feedback.
Action: I integrated Collabora Office, an open-source tool, to enable reviewers to anonymously comment directly on manuscripts. This gave reviewers a way to highlight issues, suggest improvements, and discuss feedback in context — all while maintaining confidentiality.
Impact: Simplified the peer review process by fostering real-time collaboration, improving the quality of reviewer feedback, and ensuring authors received more actionable insights without compromising anonymity.

Implemented Communication & Collaboration System

Challenge: Authors, editors, and reviewers lacked an intuitive way to communicate without breaking confidentiality or creating silos.
Action: I developed a messaging layer that allowed controlled interactions: editor-to-author, reviewer-to-reviewer, and author-to-editor, with permissions tailored to protect anonymity.
Impact: Smoothed collaboration across roles, reduced confusion during revision cycles, and increased transparency in decision-making without sacrificing reviewer confidentiality.

Orchestrated Editorial Oversight & Integrity User Flow

Challenge: Editors needed a structured way to screen manuscripts for quality, relevance, and plagiarism without slowing down publication timelines.
Action: I integrated a plagiarism detection API (similar to Turnitin/iThenticate) and designed an editor dashboard for initial checks, reviewer assignment, and conflict mediation.
Impact: Empowered editors to maintain high academic integrity, catching plagiarism early while streamlining editorial decision-making.

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Results

Reduced publishing cycle time by streamlining submission, review, and publication workflows.
Empowered reviewers with anonymous, real-time manuscript collaboration using Collabora Office.
Improved author trust with transparent feedback loops and integrated DOI assignment.
Enabled the platform to securely manage large volumes of manuscripts at scale.
Ensured rapid, reliable delivery of new features with AWS-powered CI/CD pipelines.
Protected sensitive research data with robust, secure cloud infrastructure.
Made high-quality research more accessible through a seamless, researcher-friendly platform.

Results

Reduced publishing cycle time by streamlining submission, review, and publication workflows.
Empowered reviewers with anonymous, real-time manuscript collaboration using Collabora Office.
Improved author trust with transparent feedback loops and integrated DOI assignment.
Enabled the platform to securely manage large volumes of manuscripts at scale.
Ensured rapid, reliable delivery of new features with AWS-powered CI/CD pipelines.
Protected sensitive research data with robust, secure cloud infrastructure.
Made high-quality research more accessible through a seamless, researcher-friendly platform.

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