blog

In this blog, we discuss and highlight the results of our recent author survey. In this survey, we asked our authors to describe their experiences publishing with F1000Research; including, how they would rate the service and editorial process and provide an insight into their overall thoughts publishing on F1000Research.

When F1000Research set out, our goal were to revolutionise the way researchers publish their work. We wanted to provide a system to publish all research outputs in a fast, transparent way with the author having a more integral role in the process.

Even before preprints in the life sciences escalated, we had established the open research publishing model where articles are firstly published like a preprint, and then followed by a formal, invited and open peer review process. This model brings significant benefits in removing delay and selection and make research outcomes more accessible and impactful not only for the research and researchers themselves but crucially also for society.

To ensure this model flourished, we purposely built our own custom editorial management system to provide a simple but effective infrastructure for authors to publish openly. Never satisfied, we are always striving to streamline our publication software further and to do that we regularly ask our users about how they found the process. Below we have outlined some of the key results from the author survey.

Survey highlights

The publishing experience

A big part of the overall publishing experience for an author is made up of their interactions with the editorial staff. We are proud of our editorial team who work hard to answer any questions authors may have, provide advice, support and assistance to make the process run more smoothly. We believe in the personal touch and try to ensure we communicate with our authors clearly every step of the way.

Speed of publishing

We’re big on efficiency and if an author wants an article published quickly then we have the system to do that. Our editorial team ensure that articles are processed in a timely manner (median turnaround time for prepublication checks 3 days). We also provide support to ensure all the underlying data is stored in an appropriate repository and we also go to great lengths to prepare the author for the peer-review process.

A great all-round experience

We have a number of returning authors, with 57% of articles on F1000Research having an author who has published with us at least twice, and 36% at least three times. Indeed, the ability to provide authors with a great experience, so that they want to publish with us again, is of upmost importance to us and one we are constantly working to maintain and improve.

Recommending F1000Research

We want to encourage and facilitate as many authors as possible to try out our publishing model, so we are very pleased to find that authors who have published with us previously would recommend us. We find that once an author has experienced our efficient system and friendly staff they tell their colleagues that unlike a traditional journal system the experience at F1000Research works at the pace you want and not what the system wants.

Open Peer Review

Times are changing, authors want more from their published papers. Our authors like that they are involved in the selection of reviewers, and they particularly like the transparent manner in which the peer review is done. Open reviews and open identities ensure that reviews are constructive and civil – real scientific discourse. Without an academic editor being involved in the peer review process, authors and reviewers can engage in a dialogue about the work which ultimately improves the final version of the work.

Submit your research to F1000Research!

The results speak for themselves, so why not give it a try and submit your own findings for publication on F1000Research.

F1000Research complies with all funding agencies publication requirements and we are internationally recognised as a high quality and trusted publication.

If you would like any further information then please feel free to contact us at research@f1000.com and visit F1000Research to find out more about our open research publishing model and previously published research.