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Things here at F1000 can move pretty fast, and I’m not even talking about our speedy publication and peer review process (although that is fast too)! We’ve achieved a lot in the over five years since F1000Research published its first articles and we’ve learned a lot too.

Since the full launch of F1000Research in 2013, we have developed and refined a peer review model that puts researchers front and centre of the publication process. We have built numerous partnerships with major communities such as ELIXIR, GODAN, INCF, Cytoscape, Bioconductor, RPackage, and many others to provide them with Gateways to showcase their outputs in a flexible and innovative way.

Providing a means for all results of research funded from these activities to be published for all to see.

In the past 18 months, we’ve shifted into a new gear by partnering with four funders, including two of the world’s largest private biomedical funders Wellcome and the Gates Foundation, and two institutes, to launch six full publication platforms based on the F1000Research model.

I am therefore delighted to announce that we will be partnering with the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) to provide a publication platform for 23 of their UK-based medical research charities (full list of the charities involved at the end of this post).

In coming together to launch AMRC Open Research, these 23 charities are working to ensure that the money raised from marathons run, channels swam, and cakes sold, makes a real difference by providing a means for all results of research funded from these activities to be published for all to see.

It is heartening for us at F1000 to see this new way of publishing being embraced so readily and easily by so many researchers, funders and institutes. In launching AMRC Open Research, it will bring significant benefits to those with vested interests in the 23 participating charities. Researchers funded by these charities will be able to share any result they wish in an immediate and transparent way; those that raise money for these charities will be able to see the results of their hard work; and patients will be able to better understand the merit of the research based on the open expert peer review reports.

Patients will be able to better understand the merit of the research based on the open expert peer review reports.

When AMRC Open Research is launched in the third quarter of this year, we are confident that it will mirror the success of our other publication platforms. Wellcome Open Research started publishing back in November 2016, and has since exceeded all expectations. Just last week it published its two-hundredth article and the platform is already the fifth largest venue for the publication of Wellcome-funded research, and growing.

Gates Open Research continues to go from strength to strength and the feedback we’ve received from authors and reviewers has been very positive, while HRB Open Research is already the third largest publication venue for research funded by HRB. The latest addition, AAS Open Research, has also proven very popular with requests to submit manuscripts before the submission system had even opened!

As Aisling Burnand, Chief Executive of AMRC says in her blog post: “AMRC Open Research will allow researchers to easily publish all aspects of their work, so pieces of the puzzle that may have traditionally been overlooked can be added to global efforts to improve human health.”

It is also the first platform to set up that will provide a publication venue for a coalition of funders – something that we hope to see more of. In this way, AMRC Open Research will start to drive the vision of ORC (Open Research Central), of which it will be a member, sitting alongside the seven other F1000-powered platforms. ORC is a central portal that brings together content from across all the platforms that publish through the immediate publication followed by invited open peer review model. This portal is designed to drive a shift away from the importance of venue of publication and ensure a level-playing field for all outputs, especially for collaborative work by researchers that may be funded or based at more than one of the organisations associated with one of the platforms.

Ensure a level-playing field for all outputs, especially for collaborative work by researchers that may be funded or based at more than one of the organisations associated with one of the platforms.

In the eponymous film, Ferris Bueller says: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” As I said at the beginning of this blog, the past five years have gone by pretty fast and it has been good to reflect on what we have achieved in that time. But unlike Ferris, we don’t plan on taking a day off any time soon! Stay tuned for more to come. And for any grantees of the 23 participating medical charities, please do sign up for updates to keep abreast of the progress of AMRC Open Research.

The 23 participating charities are: Alzheimer’s Research UK, Ataxia UK, Autistica, BRACE, Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, Epilepsy Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Meningitis Research Foundation, MQ: Transforming Mental Health, Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Eye Research Centre, National Osteoporosis Society, Pancreatic Cancer UK, Parkinson’s UK, Pharmacy Research UK, Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, Spinal Research, Stroke Association, Target Ovarian Cancer, The Brain Tumour Charity, The Cure Parkinson’s Trust, The Lullaby Trust, and The Scar Free Foundation