F1000 Research Publishes First Articles

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In February, the Faculty of 1000 (F1000) launched F1000 Research, an innovative, new open access publishing program for biology and medicine. Last week, F1000 announced the publication of F1000 Research’s first few articles [1].

Three articles have been published on F1000 Research’s preliminary consultation site, showcasing a range of topics with easy access to the data behind the results. Of note, two of three studies were submitted by individual researchers.

The first study, Low budget analysis of Direct-To-Consumer genomic testing familial data, evaluates how much can be interpreted from the personal genomes for a whole family using soley existing public or very low cost analysis tools [2].

The second study, Considerations for clinical read alignment and mutational profiling using next-generation sequencing, compares a range of open source and commercial alignment tools for the detection of  diagnostically relevant mutations from targeted DNA sequencing [3].

The third study, Knowledge of specific HIV transmission modes in relation to HIV infection in Mozambique, uses data from the 2009 Mozambique AIDS Indicator Survey to analyze the understanding of HIV transmission modes and likelihood of HIV infection [4].

Dr. Rebecca Lawrence, Publisher for F1000 Research, commented on the publication of F1000 Research’s first articles [1]:

We are very excited to announce the publication of our first articles on F1000 Research. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us get this far, not least our Advisory Panel and Editorial Board. The discussion continues on Twitter at @F1000Research, and we invite the research community to join us as the project takes shape.

More than 200 of the most eminent names in biology and medicine have joined the international advisory panel, and more than 1000 global experts sit on the newly formed editorial board. F1000 Research has received great support from the wider scientific community, and has sparked considerable discussions about the future of scholarly publishing.

F1000 Research: a new model for scientific publishing

F1000 Research offers immediate publication; a rapid, formal and completely open peer review process post-publication; publication of work that can be hard to publish in traditional journals, including:

• Data articles (datasets and protocols, without analyses or conclusions)
• Negative/null findings
• Replication or refutation articles
• Case reports
• Small findings
• Research protocols

All F1000 Research submissions go through a fast initial review by an in-house editorial team to verify that the studies are reasonable, intelligible, and written in good English. Each article is then published with the status ‘awaiting peer review’. On publication, articles are sent to 3-5 expert referees who are asked to state whether the work appears scientifically sound. Referee responses are displayed alongside the article and its citation, and are updated as new referee responses arrive. In due course, referees are asked to provide more detailed comments and feedback, and authors are encouraged to revise their articles in response to referee comments and each article version will be citable with its own DOI.

Once an article receives two positive referee responses, it will be indexed by Scopus, Embase and Google Scholar. Similar arrangements with other major indexers are ongoing. Should an article receive no positive reviews it will not be indexed and will be removed from the default search on the site.

Integrated research articles with associated data files

To adapt to the growing output of research data so that it can be easily viewed and disseminated in a traditional manner, F1000 Research recently announced a partnership with figshare to build a widget that enables users to preview, download, cite and share data from published studies [5]. The figshare widget acts as a window within the body of the F1000 Research article, much like a YouTube video window, and allows users to preview accompanying data files without having to download them. The widget allows all readers, even those without suitable viewers for these files, to view the datasets in a ‘friendly’ format.

Indeed, one of the first three articles published by F1000 Research takes full advantage of the figshare widget. The study on direct-to-consumer genomic testing of familial data contains over 10GB of raw data files embedded within the article [2].

Each of the research outputs are citable with a DOI. All objects are available on figshare with enhanced linking back to the original full article on F1000 Research, aiding in both discoverability of individual research objects as well as driving traffic to the full story on F1000 Research. figshare plans to use this model to help other publishers accommodate the needs of researchers and funders, and the embeddable widgets will  soon be available to individual figshare users.

References

1. First articles now live on F1000 Research. Faculty of 1000. 2012 Jul 16.
2. Corpas et al. Low budget analysis of Direct-To-Consumer genomic testing familial data. F1000 Research 2012, 1:3 (doi: 10.3410/f1000research.1-3.v1).
3. Oliver GR. Considerations for clinical read alignment and mutational profiling using next-generation sequencing. F1000 Research 2012, 1:2 (doi: 10.3410/f1000research.1-2.v1).
4. Brewer DD. Knowledge of specific HIV transmission modes in relation to HIV infection in Mozambique. F1000 Research 2012, 1:1 (doi: 10.3410/f1000research.1-1.v1).
5. F1000 Research partners with figshare to provide smart ways of accessing data. Faculty of 1000. 2012 Jul 10.