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It seems not so long ago that we announced that we would be launching Gates Open Research, and hot on its heels is the latest addition to the family – UCL Child Health Open Research. We are delighted that UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, the largest centre of child health research in Europe, have taken this big step in becoming the first institute to launch their own publication platform.

In joining the growing family of publication platforms, it demonstrates the vital role that research institutions can play, together with research funders, in supporting their researchers in improving the way that the findings of their work are communicated and helping to reduce research waste.

Making the publishing process simpler

Immediate publication and transparency with a post-publication peer review process that puts the author at the centre of it.

UCL Child Health Open Research will make it simple for any authors affiliated with UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, as well as any other UCL researcher studying child health, to publish any research or data they wish to share. They will be able to do so with greater speed through immediate publication and transparency with a post-publication peer review process that puts the author at the centre of it.

To benefit the research community and society

Publications on UCL Child Health Open Research will ensure that any child health research at UCL can be published without barriers in a way that supports reproducibility while meeting the open access policies of UCL. This will help disseminate research from UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, as well as enable reanalysis, replication attempts and data reuse, bringing benefits to other researchers, as well as society more broadly. All of this will support UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health’s mission to improve all of child health.

A publication platform that supports all research

UCL Child Health Open Research will complement the five scientific strategies of UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health: developmental and biology cancer; developmental neurosciences, genetics and genomic medicine; infection, immunity and inflammation; and population, policy and practice. It will also be ideally suited for the cross-cutting theme of rare diseases where finding a venue for publication of rare disease articles can be more difficult due to their small sample size or finding somewhere with the appropriate scope.

Results of life-saving research can get out there sooner, and is of particular benefit to early career researchers who need something to show for their work when applying for their next grant or job.

The platform also encourages the publication of all types of research output, including traditional research articles, clinical trials, case reports, systematic reviews, data sets and many others. We know that supporting non-traditional article types is something authors appreciate from our work on Wellcome Open Research, and is important in ensuring a balanced understanding of science and in providing appropriate credit for producers of all types of valuable research outputs.

The speed of publication on these platforms – typically within a week – also reduces the burden for researchers in getting such findings published. Furthermore, it means the results of life-saving research can get out there sooner, and is of particular benefit to early career researchers who need something to show for their work when applying for their next grant or job.

Growing number of travellers on the journey

Back in November last year, I described the launch of Wellcome Open Research as the start of a journey in changing how publishing works. We have now been joined by Gates Open Research and UCL Child Open Health on this journey. This reminds me of a quote by the English author, Izaak Walton: “Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter.” Watch this space for more travellers joining this journey soon, who will make it seem even shorter. In the meantime, you can keep informed of how this leg of the voyage is going by signing up for updates.

You can read more about UCL Child Health Open Research from Rosalind Smyth, Director of UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and Martin Elliott, UCL Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, in this guest blog.