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By Cindy Chen

We were honored that our chairman, Vitek Tracz, was invited to speak at the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) 2011 European Meeting. The session was on the future of journal publishing – a subject Vitek is well acquainted with having founded BioMed Central and other publishing initiatives.

After reminding the audience of how challenging it was to start open access (but now even Nature does it!), Vitek discussed the two main challenges of traditional journal publishing – peer-review and data publishing. He announced that, building upon F1000 Posters, we are creating an online platform where articles will be split into separate (but linked) data articles and analysis/conclusion articles that will be made public immediately, followed by open peer review (formal and community), called F1000 Research. The model will enable immediate sharing of research and be completely transparent – the reviewers will be named alongside their comments, and the authors will have an opportunity to respond and improve their articles based on the feedback.

While still a work in progress, the initial feedback from the audience, both in the extensive discussions at the meeting, and via Twitter, was very enthusiastic:

@WoodrowMedical

#ismppem11 F1000 new research model will require data to be submitted as well as a narrative… Looks like a new journal evolution…

@networkpharma

Tracz: reflecting on how so much research is NOT published. Ever. Part of vision is to enable publishing everything. #Ismppem11

@IainSpray

Conclusion from #ISMPPEM11: Vitek and team’s plan for a new type of ‘journal’ @F1000 Research may revolutionize primary research publishing.

@janechin

@WoodrowMedical I love this F1000 “open” peer-review: it’s combining “social” with peer-review to advance science! #ismppem11

Watch out for our Research Threads blog coming soon where will be discussing the details and key issues of this new initiative. In the meantime, what are your thoughts on this new publishing concept?