By Aisling Burnand, Chief Executive, AMRC 

Published: 1 May 2018

Medical research charities exist to improve the lives of the communities they support – and our members do this by funding vital research, which can only make a difference if the results are rapidly and openly shared with researchers and the public.  At AMRC, we are working hard with our members to make sure this happens and are delighted to announce AMRC Open Research – a new tool developed in collaboration with 23 AMRC members.

What is AMRC Open Research?

AMRC Open Research is an online open access publishing platform that will be launching in autumn 2018. The platform will be powered by F1000 and follows the same model used by large funders including the Wellcome Trust and Gates Foundation.

Researchers funded by any of the 23 participating charities will be able to immediately publish any research outputs or data resulting from their charitable funding. The work will be peer reviewed openly (so the reviewer is credited with the review) and following formal evaluation and acceptance articles that have passed peer review will be indexed in PubMed and other scientific databases, in the same way as work published in traditional journals. 

Why now?

Since Wellcome Trust and F1000 launched the first funder-led open access publication platform in 2016, our other member charities have been looking to see if this approach could help in increasing the transparency in research.

All too often the results of research are published slowly, held behind paywalls, or never published at all.

By working together to fund a shared platform, we are maximising the value of the donations charities receive and enabling a wide spectrum of researchers to rapidly and openly share their findings.

This will limit duplication of effort, accelerate the progress of research and most importantly bring benefits to patients sooner.

Why is this important for patients?

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. By making those articles available in a matter of days, rather than the typical months or years that traditional publishing can take, and by including access to the raw data, AMRC Open Research will help accelerate our understanding of the conditions and diseases that affect so many lives and help researchers develop new diagnostics, interventions and treatments more rapidly.

The open access model also allows anyone to access the results of research, including all those living with or affected by the conditions being researched and the public. Publishing the expert peer review reports alongside the articles will help all readers understand the merits of the work being published about human health.

Where can I find out more?

AMRC Open Research is scheduled to launch in the Autumn of 2018. Stay up-to-date with the latest developments by signing up for alerts through the AMRC Open Research website: https://amrcopenresearch.org/

Further commentary is available from Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director of F1000, in a blog post here: https://blog.f1000.com/2018/05/01/amrc-open-research/