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Gates Open Research is an open access publishing Platform for the publication of research funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Platform enables a greater potential impact and recognition for work by accepting a broad range of outputs, from traditional Research Articles to non-traditional article types such as Data Notes, Method Articles, and more. No matter what form your research takes, it has the potential to make a real-world impact, and can find a home on Gates Open Research. 

It is important to have a clear idea about the different types of articles that you can publish on Gates Open Research. This will help you understand the multiple ways in which you can disseminate your work and identify what kind of article (or articles) would be suitable for your study. That is why in this blog, we will be exploring a handful of the peer reviewed research outputs that can be published on Gates Open Research to help guide you along your research journey. 

The value of all research outputs  

At Gates Open Research reducing research waste is key. That is why we support a range of articles that assist researchers publish the full breadth of their studies, from the preliminary idea, method, and strategy to data sets, as well as the full traditional Research Article. By supporting a diverse range of article types, the Platform enables researchers to maximise the impact of their Gates-funded research! 

Research Articles are the backbone of Gates Open Research and are article we publish most frequently. In fact, in 2021 Research Articles represented 68% of the work published on the Platform. However, we continue to see a growth in the utilization of our other non-traditional article types that researcher may not be as familiar with. Below we detail a handful of the non-traditional article types accepted on Gates Open Research: 

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Study Protocols are a great way for researchers to share and gain feedback on the rationale and methods for a study. These articles describe in detail any study design, including (but not limited to) experimental design of basic, translational and applied research, epidemiological studies and systematic reviews, or protocols defining research questions and empirical methods in global development, economics or education. Study pre-protocols, Study Protocols for pilot and feasibility studies will also be considered. 

Method Articles describe new methods or modifications to existing ones. These may be experimental, observational, or computational methods, or procedures in basic, translational or applied research. Publication of separate Method Articles supports a reproducible research culture, and the Gates Open Research versioning technology allows researchers to update these articles as methods are refined over time. 

Research Notes shine a light on smaller findings that can typically end up hidden in supplementary materials without proper visibility and impact. Research Notes include single-finding papers that can be reported with one or two figures/tables, descriptions of unexpected observations, and lab protocols. 

Data Notes are brief descriptions of scientific datasets that promote the potential reuse of research data and include details of why and how the data were created. Data Notes can boost recognition and are often cited in future work using the data presented. 

Open Letters are discuss policies relevant to the research community, present guidelines or white papers, or announce new initiatives.  

Software Tool Articles allow researchers and developers creating software and code as part of their work to gain credit for it. Software Tool Articles may also describe tools created from existing software. These articles should include the rationale for the development of the tool and details of the code used for its construction. The article should provide examples of suitable input data sets and include an example of the output that can be expected from the tool and how this output should be interpreted. 

Systematic Reviews are often focused on medical interventions or animal model studies, but can also be suitable for agricultural intervention studies, education, economics or other areas of social sciences. Systematic Reviews should deal with a clearly formulated question and use systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically assess the relevant research. Gates Open Research requires authors to follow the PRISMA guidelines as part of our commitment to rigorous reporting. 

To read the author instructions for each article type, visit our webpage here. 

Robust research 

All submissions to Gates Open Research will undergo rapid yet diligent pre-publication checks by our Editorial team before being published with the status ‘awaiting peer review’, assessing originality, readability, author eligibility, method reporting and compliance with the Platforms policies and ethical guidelines, including our data sharing policy. If for any reason a submission fails the initial checks, it will be returned to the authors to address the issues so that the article can be accepted on the Platform. 

After publication, all articles undergo our peer review process which is entirely open and transparent. Expert reviewers are selected and invited, and their reports and names are published alongside the article, together with the authors’ responses and comments from registered users. Articles that pass peer review are indexed in external databases such as PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. 

No matter what form your research takes, you can find a home for it on Gates Open Research. Are you ready to submit your research? Visit https://gatesopenresearch.org/ or email info@gatesopenresearch.org for more information!