Pensoft Publishers is a scientific publishing house with headquarters in Bulgaria and offices in the United States, Germany, France and China. Pensoft is the first publisher from Bulgaria to be a member of the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM). The company publishes open access journals and books in biodiversity, ecology, zoology, taxonomy, systematics, natural history and conservation.
Pensoft was founded in 1996 by two scientists – Dinko Simov and Lyubomir Penev – with the aim to make quality peer-reviewed publications available worldwide regardless of geographical location or economic status. This mission is reflected in Pensoft’s commitment to open access publishing: all articles published by Pensoft are freely available online immediately upon publication. In addition, authors retain the copyright to their work, ensuring that their research can be disseminated as widely as possible.
Since its inception, Pensoft has published over 1 400 scientific papers and books, including many landmark works such as “The Atlas of European Butterflies” which was hailed as “an outstanding achievement” by Sir David Attenborough. Other notable publications include “A Field Guide to the Birds of Bulgaria”, “Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Britain and Europe” and “Reptiles & Amphibians of Britain & Europe”.
In recent years, Pensoft has expanded its offerings to include data publications such as “Biodiversity Data Journal” – a platform for sharing primary biodiversity data sets – and “Zenodo” – a repository for storing and sharing digital research outputs such as software code or datasets. As part of its commitment to openness, all data published in these platforms is made available under Creative Commons licenses which allow for reuse provided that proper attribution is given.
Looking to the future, Pensoft plans to continue its expansion with new initiatives such as an educational program aimed at teaching young people about open science principles and practices. Additionally, the company is working on developing new tools and services to support researchers throughout the publication process. With its innovative approach to scholarly communication, Pensoft is playing a key role in advancing science globally.