Category Archives: oa.f1000research

The University of Tsukuba and F1000 Research lead the way in Open Science with first open research publishing gateway to publish in Japanese – F1000 Blogs

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“Today, the University of Tsukuba has announced that it has signed a contract with F1000 Research Ltd to develop the first open research publishing gateway that will enable researchers to publish in either English or Japanese.

Not only will the publishing gateway make it simple for authors affiliated with the University of Tsukuba to publish any research or data they wish to share rapidly, openly and transparently, but it will also enable those studying the humanities and social sciences to choose whether to publish in English or in Japanese.

Indeed, English holds a preeminent position as the “lingua franca” in international scientific communication, despite the majority of the world’s scholars not possessing English as their first language. This does not necessarily mean, however, that studies published in other languages are of less value or quality.

This forward-thinking publishing approach means that researchers specializing in fields such as humanities and social sciences will be able to publish in an international journal but choose which language they feel most comfortable writing in, as well as what befits their field of study the most.

Indeed, the humanities and social sciences fields are where publishing in a regional language would enable more profound understanding and knowledge sharing, given these academic disciplines are often dedicated to the study of philosophy, history, literature, society, law, economy, and so on of a specific culture. Japanese language research articles will include abstracts and metadata in both Japanese and English, and will be indexed in relevant bibliographic databases in both English and Japanese….”

Publishers Invest in Preprints – The Scholarly Kitchen

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“For years now, preprint communities have provided a glimmer of an alternative to the journal publishing system, that speed and efficiency might replace what has seemed to many like a cumbersome editorial and peer review process. What started in a small set of originating fields such as high energy physics in 1991 has, in recent years, begun to take hold elsewhere, including the biomedical sciences. Today, Ithaka S+R has published an overview of key developments in preprint communities, which are grappling with an array of policy issues as they seek to build trust in a contested information environment and build durable business strategies. 

Rob Johnson and Andrea Chiarelli recently looked at some of the options that publishers face in engaging with preprints. Today, we observe that beyond preprint communities that are typically organized around a field or set of fields, in recent years all the major publishers have made their own investments in preprint platforms. Publishers are integrating preprint deposit into their manuscript submission workflows, and adopting a common strategy designed to take back control of preprints….”

Enhancing access to the outputs of Federally funded research – Taylor & Francis Newsroom

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“We welcome this consultation on public access policy. As part of our ongoing engagement with the OSTP, Taylor & Francis and F1000 Research Ltd have submitted responses to the RFI. Taylor & Francis and F1000 Research’s responses illustrate how we are working on complementary paths to transform scholarly communication in order to accelerate research impact across the whole ecosystem:

Taylor & Francis response
F1000 Research Ltd response…”

Wellcome Open Research: a summary of year 3 | Wellcome Open Research Blog

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“The Wellcome Open Research (WOR) publishing platform has been fully operational for three years and in this time has grown to become the third most used venue for Wellcome-funded researchers to share their research findings. In this blog post, we provide an analysis of publishing activity on the WOR platform and preview some of the activities we have planned for 2020….

2020 will be a time of change for F1000 Research – the company who manage the WOR platform – following the sale of the company to Taylor and Francis. However, we do not believe this will have any immediate impact on WOR, and indeed are seeing this acquisition as testament that the drive for open research publishing is gathering momentum….”

PLOS Joins Other Publishers and Societies in Support of the Proposed White House Policy Regarding Federally Funded Research

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Note: PLOS and other prominent organizations delivered the following letter to the Trump Administration on January 17, 2020. We encourage all publishing organizations and scholarly societies who would like to join us in support of OA in the USA to reach out to us at community@plos.org — we can prepare an expanded letter with more signatories as necessary. Please also consider voicing your support on social media with the hashtag #OAintheUSA.

Taking another step in our evolution to meet the needs of 21st Century researchers – Editor Resources

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“I am extremely excited to be able to tell you about the addition of F1000 Research to the Taylor & Francis Group. F1000 Research is a trail-blazer in the evolution of research communication. In 2013, it launched the world’s first open research publishing platform, combining the opportunities offered by technology with a passion for identifying new ways to validate and share research. You can read more about their history and passion, and about why they have chosen to join the Taylor & Francis family in Rebecca Lawrence’s (their Managing Director’s) blog.

Building upon the growth and success of its core platform, F1000 Research also provides fully managed, open research publishing services directly to research funders and institutions, including Wellcome, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Health Research Board Ireland, as well as to other scholarly publishers such as Emerald Publishing. F1000 Research combines opportunities offered by technology with a passion for identifying new ways to validate and share research.

The philosophy, culture, and customer-focused approach which have made F1000 Research so successful are the reasons we’re so excited to be working with them, and these will not change. In fact, our aim is to “super-charge” F1000 Research, giving them the resources they need to grow, flourish, and continue to innovate in pursuit of their vision: to change and transform the scholarly publications system and to create a research system that maximises reach, utility and ultimately impact of new discoveries for all….”

Taking another step in our evolution to meet the needs of 21st Century researchers – Editor Resources

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“I am extremely excited to be able to tell you about the addition of F1000 Research to the Taylor & Francis Group. F1000 Research is a trail-blazer in the evolution of research communication. In 2013, it launched the world’s first open research publishing platform, combining the opportunities offered by technology with a passion for identifying new ways to validate and share research. You can read more about their history and passion, and about why they have chosen to join the Taylor & Francis family in Rebecca Lawrence’s (their Managing Director’s) blog.

Building upon the growth and success of its core platform, F1000 Research also provides fully managed, open research publishing services directly to research funders and institutions, including Wellcome, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Health Research Board Ireland, as well as to other scholarly publishers such as Emerald Publishing. F1000 Research combines opportunities offered by technology with a passion for identifying new ways to validate and share research.

The philosophy, culture, and customer-focused approach which have made F1000 Research so successful are the reasons we’re so excited to be working with them, and these will not change. In fact, our aim is to “super-charge” F1000 Research, giving them the resources they need to grow, flourish, and continue to innovate in pursuit of their vision: to change and transform the scholarly publications system and to create a research system that maximises reach, utility and ultimately impact of new discoveries for all….”

The T&F buyout of F1000 neutralizes the Plan S threat infrastructures | Martin Paul Eve | Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing

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“What is actually happening here is that T&F is neutralizing the threat of Plan S. The Plan states that funded research must be published in pure (not hybrid) gold OA venues or under zero-embargo green. If these venues do not exist, because publishers do not convert their journals, then funders plan to ‘in a coordinated way, provide incentives to establish and support them when appropriate; support will also be provided for Open Access infrastructures where necessary’. I call these the ‘threat infrastructures’.

But the threat infrastructures are now not threatening to T&F….”

F1000 Research deal ‘strengthens Taylor & Francis’ capabilities’ | Research Information

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“Academic publisher Taylor & Francis Group has announced the addition of open research publisher F1000 Research.

The addition is being described as a further step in strengthening Taylor & Francis’ capabilities in open access and open research, and extending its range of publishing services. 

Annie Callanan, chief executive of Taylor & Francis, said: ‘The addition of F1000 Research significantly strengthens and extends our capabilities in open research and broader publishing services. It also brings with it a strong culture of innovation and challenging the status quo. This will be invaluable as we evolve to meet the research needs of the 21st century; offering options to create the impact needed to convert research into solutions quickly.’…”

F1000Research flies the nest – F1000 Blogs

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“I am delighted to announce today that F1000 Research Ltd has been acquired by Taylor & Francis Group (part of Informa plc). This is a hugely exciting opportunity for us. For a start, it will expedite our growth through the greater financial support and resources of a very large established organisation with extensive geographical and disciplinary reach. But most exciting to me, it will give us the opportunity to directly influence one of the ‘Big 4’ publishers to support the transition towards more open and collaborative ways of working, enabled though new approaches to scholarly publishing.   

It will be no surprise to many that F1000 Research is now transferring to a new owner. Our founder, Vitek Tracz has an impressive track record of nurturing ideas through start-up companies, and taking them to a level where they are ready to fly the nest. We will be following in the footsteps of many of his companies that have gone on to exciting and successful onward lives in the hands of others including BioMed Central (where Vitek initiated the Open Access movement in collaboration with PubMed Central), Current Opinions series, Current Biology, Current Drugs, Current Patents, IDdb3, Telmap, The Scientist, and many more.

Since F1000 Research’s conception, Vitek has been adamant that he would only ever sell F1000 Research to an organisation that he is convinced is fully committed to not only maintaining our vision and supporting us to scale up but also to ultimately transform the whole industry over time. Both Vitek and I feel confident that we have found such an organisation in Taylor & Francis, its CEO Annie Callanan and her executive leadership team, and I am very excited to continue to lead F1000 Research in this next phase….”

Taylor & Francis buys F1000 Research | The Bookseller

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“Taylor & Francis has acquired open research publisher F1000 Research from its founder Vitek Tracz. The acquisition sum was not disclosed.

Tracz will remain owner of F1000Prime and F1000Workspace, which are not included in the sale.

F1000 Research launched the world’s first open research publishing platform in 2013; it also provides open research publishing services directly to research funders and institutions including Wellcome, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Emerald Publishing. The venture currently employs 40 staff; it is planned for it to remain in London, where it will continue to operate independently, while also becoming a key component of T&F’s range of open research services and Plan S-compliant platforms….”

How it Works – Open Research Central

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“This model has been running on F1000Research since its inception in 2013. It is also used by Wellcome Open Research for Wellcome grant holders, and Gates Open Research for grantees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which were launched in November 2016 and November 2017, respectively. Several other funders and research organisations, such as the HRB Ireland and the African Academy of Sciences, and institutions such as the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, have started, or are setting up, publishing platforms within Open Research Central. Details of the publishing model, as well as author guidelines and policies can be found on each platform.

The model continues to evolve through ongoing consultation with a wide variety of stakeholders, including numerous researchers across scientific disciplines, research funders, institutions, policy makers, and others.

Open Research Central has engaged F1000 Services Limited to maintain this portal.

The governance structure for Open Research Central is currently being assembled which will comprise broad representation from across the international research community, from research funding agencies to research institutions to researchers themselves….”

Are Funder Open Access Platforms a Good Idea? – Tony Ross-Hellauer, Birgit Schmidt, Bianca Kramer, 2018

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Abstract:  As open access (OA) to publications continues to gather momentum, we should continuously question whether it is moving in the right direction. A novel intervention in this space is the creation of OA publishing platforms commissioned by funding organizations. Examples include those of the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation, as well as recently announced initiatives from public funders like the European Commission and the Irish Health Research Board. As the number of such platforms increases, it becomes urgently necessary to assess in which ways, for better or worse, this emergent phenomenon complements or disrupts the scholarly communications landscape. This article examines ethical, organizational, and economic strengths and weaknesses of such platforms, as well as usage and uptake to date, to scope the opportunities and threats presented by funder OA platforms in the ongoing transition to OA. The article is broadly supportive of the aims and current implementations of such platforms, finding them a novel intervention which stands to help increase OA uptake, control costs of OA, lower administrative burden on researchers, and demonstrate funders’ commitment to fostering open practices. However, the article identifies key areas of concern about the potential for unintended consequences, including the appearance of conflicts of interest, difficulties of scale, potential lock-in, and issues of the branding of research. The article ends with key recommendations for future consideration which include a focus on open scholarly infrastructure.

Meeting report: Visions and versions and the future of peer review | Inside eLife | eLife

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“The F1000 platform is also being used by funders (Wellcome, Gates and others), which will no doubt boost the general level of comfort with this approach. Two key questions are whether single monolithic platforms are better suited to research communication than a more distributed system of interoperable services and whether the foundational infrastructure supporting research communication should itself be open (unlike the technology underpinning F1000)….

“For the research community, the strongest message I sensed was enthusiasm for early-career researchers to review preprints and share their critiques with the authors. If that takes hold, a massive community of talented reviewers could emerge habituated in the open sharing of their opinions and ideas – a tantalising prospect for those who hope for a more transparent and collaborative scientific culture….”