F1000

Preprints, or initial versions of scientific reports that researchers share before the formal peer review and publication process have been completed, have started to become more popular within academic circles—and now the Gates Foundation has changed its Open Access policy to require grant-funded research papers to appear as preprints before publication.

Publishing in a journal that isn’t reputable can reduce the credibility of research, hinder one’s career, and lessen the impact of research findings. When choosing a journal, researchers should talk with their colleagues, supervisors, and librarians to find out which publications they read regularly and which they perceive as the most highly respected in their field.

Academics have a shared goal of making their work highly accessible for a worldwide audience—and they agree that F1000Research, which is part of Taylor & Francis and supports researchers in all subject areas, is an effective platform for achieving this goal.

With new guidelines stating that by Dec. 31, 2025, all federally funded research should be made freely available to the public moving forward, the momentum toward open access publishing at colleges and universities is growing.

Research assessment, or the process that universities use to measure the value of published papers and other research outputs, plays a critical role in hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions. It can have a profound effect on the job stability and reputation of researchers. 

Research data are the underlying evidence that supports the claims made in scholarly publications, and making these data publicly available is a fundamental aspect of open access publishing. Yet, owing to a number of obstacles—some real, some perceived—many researchers are reluctant to share their data with the broader research community.

The OSTP memo has important, and far-reaching, implications for how universities and other institutions share their research findings with the public moving forward. While it will advance the future of open-access publishing significantly, it also will impose many challenges on the academic community.