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The end of 2017 is pretty much with us now and what a year it has been here at F1000. We announced a partnership with Researchfish early on in the year, we announced five and launched two new publication platforms throughout the year, and we took an in depth look at peer review. As we approach the end of the year it presents a good opportunity to reflect on what you have been finding of most interest on the F1000 blog in 2017. As always if there is anything you’d like to see covered on the blog in 2018 please do not hesitate to drop us a line: press@f1000.com.

 ORC: ‘repulsive and malevolent’ or ‘lover of rebellion and freedom’

In July, our Chairman, Vitek Tracz, introduced us to ORC – Open Research Central. ORC is a new portal through which research in any field can be submitted for formal publication on one of the open research publishing platforms that we provide for funders and institutes.  In his post Vitek talks about how the current process of academic publish needs to change to ensure it is better serving the research community. It seems you were all interested in what Vitek had to say as it was our most read blog post of 2017.

A conversation on the ethics of publishing

Credit: David Liff, CC-BY-SA 3.0

Corina Logan published an article on the ethics of publishing on F1000Research. This was then recommended on F1000Prime by Clint Perry. Corina’s article raised a lot on interesting points about peer review, open access and what changes are needed to ensure that publishers better serve the scientific community. I interviewed Corina and Clint back in June to explore these topics further.

Putting authors in control and giving reviewers credit

We often say that the transparent post-publication peer review model that we use on the F1000 publication platforms puts authors in control of the process while giving peer reviewers credit for their work. But what does this actually mean? In March, our Editorial Director, Sabina Alam, delved a bit deeper into our peer review model and described the checks and balances that are in place.  She then followed up later in the year elaborating further on what it means to be in control.

Gates Open Research: the journey continues

This year we announced five new publication platforms. In April we announced our first new platform on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Our Managing Director, Rebecca Lawrence, introduced us to Gates Open Research and how it supports grantees funded by the Foundation in getting their work out in a fast and transparent way. The platform has since launched and we heard from one of the authors – Lisa Reitmer – as to why she decided to publish there.

Open the black box of peer review

The appetite for peer review continued throughout the year when Liz Allen, Director of Strategic Initiatives, here at F1000 decided to lift the lid on peer review. Following a conference in June, Liz looked into what peer review actually tells us and how we use expert opinion. If you want to find out more about what we had to say about peer review this year you can have a look here.