blog

Science’s most important breakthroughs, from the discovery of microorganisms to the theory of evolution, have come about through observation. As part of the scientific method, observations are made to record a fact or an occurrence to help either prove or disprove a hypothesis. However, we all know the unpredictable nature of science and the curve balls it can throw. Sometimes, serendipitous observations occur that are unrelated to the current hypothesis. As these observations may not be part of the original goal of a study they can often remain unpublished or become concealed within the grey literature.

Here at F1000Research, we think there is a need to formally record these potentially important observations; these phenomena could be of huge interest to other research groups and in some cases could lead to exciting new research directions. That is why we have created a new article type called an ‘observation article’.

The scope of these articles should describe the observation that was made, include adequate details about the circumstances of the finding, and provide evidence of its occurrence such as supporting images or data. A discussion should also be included to elaborate why the observation is deemed novel, possible explanations and implications of the finding, and suggestions for the next steps for further investigation.

One of our editorial board members, Ferdinando Boero, recently wrote an opinion article on the need for citable observation records with reference to natural history. Now, his citizen science study, which observed a mysterious salp bloom along the Apulian coast and in the Otranto Channel, is our first published observation article.

Observations in ecology, especially in the field, can be important and the need to publish these in the scientific literature has been corroborated by ecology advisory panel member Simon Levin:

“The inception of an observation article is valuable. It is important to publish basic observations that are biologically interesting as they provide a feasible option for researchers to document potential leads they themselves may not be able to follow.”

However observations are certainly not limited to a specific field. Unforeseen observations can happen in many scientific circumstances, such as under a microscope in the laboratory or during a computational analysis. If all these different types of observations are published and readily searchable, in time, collections of similar types of observations can be recorded and linked together to provide initial evidence of why certain phenomena occur, and this in turn may lead to some wider publications and new scientific breakthroughs.

So, if you have observed something interesting, submit an observation article to F1000Research to get a citable, indexed article that could potentially be the first step towards something much more significant.