AI tech solutions for the future of scholarly publishing

Started in 2002 to bridge the gap between research in the East and West, CACTUS’s tech solutions are now accelerating scientific advancement further.

Cactus Communications today celebrates 20 years in business. Founded in 2002, with the aim of helping researchers break the language barrier and get published in English-speaking journals, the company delivered a revenue of over $100mn in FY2022 with 1,200 full-time employees, 4,500 freelancers, and 800 contractors from over 190 countries. Its tech solutions include everything from AI-based manuscript pre-submission checks, research impact creation, and other tools for authors, publishers, and life sciences organisations — an approach the company is building on for rapid scientific advancement in the coming years.

With total global research spend at $2.4tr, that is growing at a rate of $100bn per year, the market is an attractive one for the future of the scientific community. External analysis shows that CACTUS operates with a serviceable available market (SAM) size of around $10bn, with room for growth. Having experienced a CAGR of 20 per cent in the last three years, CACTUS expects to double its revenue in the next three years. A key reason for the company’s success has been its unique business model.

“We realised early on that researchers who were not native English speakers struggled to get published,” said Abhishek Goel, CEO and co-founder of CACTUS. “We wanted to change this and there was no other company at the time trying to address this problem. We built editing and translation services under our brand Editage, which also celebrates 20 years, and soon expanded to publication support, pre-submission checks, research impact creation, and other solutions for authors publishers and life science organisations.

“Today we have a researcher ecosystem that addresses needs beyond publication and has end-to-end solutions for every major stakeholder in academia and life sciences. And we’re just getting started,” continued Goel.

“Our offering includes specialised author services, research impact acceleration, medical communication support and technology products for business solutions under the brands Editage, Cactus Life Sciences, Researcher.Life, Impact Science, Paperpal, and Cactus Labs,” added Anurag Goel, co-founder and executive chairman, CACTUS.

“We have entered the AI and deep learning space to develop innovative products and build tech solutions for all stakeholders in the research landscape,” explained Nishchay Shah, CTO, CACTUS. “For example, one of our tools, Paperpal Preflight, is powered by machine learning and trained on millions of published articles. It helps authors identify missing declarations, and common language issues prior to first submission.”

With experts in over 500 subject areas, CACTUS has helped over 250,000 researchers get published in the last 20 years. Its clients include major publishers like Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Sage, Wolters Kluwer, and Springer Nature, and renowned academic societies including the Royal Society of Chemistry, British Medical Society, American Psychological Association, and the American Management Association.

Beyond technological advancements, the company has also embraced innovations in working culture. “In 2021, we became a remote-first company, allowing our global workforce to work from anywhere,” said Yashmi Pujara, chief HR officer, CACTUS. “This allows us to find the best talent without any geographical barriers. We now see twice the number of recruits from cities where we did not have a presence earlier.”

www.cactusglobal.com

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