Tell the full story of your Gates-funded research
| 18 October, 2023 | Abbie Nicholson |
With just a couple of months left in 2023 to publish your work, we reintroduce Gates-funded researchers to Gates Open Research – the open access publishing venue funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – its benefits, and how authors can publish their latest work today to tell the full story of their research.
What is Gates Open Research?
Gates Open Research is a multidisciplinary open access publishing venue for all Gates-funded researchers.
The platform is underpinned by open research practices, including:
- Fully open access
- A formal, invited peer review model that is entirely open and transparent
- A comprehensive open data policy
- Post-publication peer review
- A wide range of article types
Gates Open Research places rigor, reproducibility, and the intrinsic value of individual research outputs at the center of its publishing model.
Providing open research opportunities for Gates Foundation grantees
Open science helps us to advance and improve society. By providing immediate and unrestricted access to the latest research, we can accelerate discovery and create a more equitable system of knowledge that is open to all.
Gates Open Research offers one of the most innovative forms of publishing for Gates-funded researchers, and over 3,000 Gates grantees have already published their work on the platform since its launch.
The platform continues to host high-profile and impactful papers from Gates grantees, including:
- Scaled deployment of Wolbachia to protect the community from dengue and other Aedes transmitted arboviruses – a Research Article with over 11,000 views, 1,400 downloads, and 250 citations, including coverage in BBC News, Forbes, and the American Council on Science and Health.
- The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on meeting needs for family planning: a global scenario by contraceptive methods used – a Research Note with over 5,000 views, 750 downloads, and 30 citations, including citations in a World Health Organization policy document.
Key areas of research on Gates Open Research
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds research programs across a wide range of global challenges, and all Gates-funded researchers can publish their work at no cost on the platform, regardless of their research area.
Some of the key areas of research on the platform include:
- Tropical medicine, including neglected tropical diseases
- Infectious diseases and vaccine development
- Family planning
- Water, sanitation, and hygiene
- Agricultural development
- Nutrition
Gates-funded researchers are using cutting-edge methods to understand each of these key health topics and help accelerate discoveries to reduce inequities.
As a result, it’s increasingly important to publish research openly, ensuring maximum impact and helping authors remain at the forefront of many of the major challenges we face in the 21st century.
Spotlight on tropical medicine and infectious diseases
Rapid molecular assays for the detection of the four dengue viruses in infected mosquitoes
This Method Article introduces new ways to detect dengue in infected mosquitos, which can significantly reduce the time, costs, and resources required to test for dengue in resource-limited environments. These new rapid tests aims to enhance dengue virus surveillance and control globally.
This Research Article aims to establish the performance of next generation tests used to diagnose latent tuberculosis infection, using a case study of gold miners in South Africa. The research identifies high agreement and similar performance between the two tests.
Improving data use for decision making by neglected tropical disease program teams: eight use cases
This Research Article analyses the routine data used by national neglected tropical disease programs targeting lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, and trachoma. It highlights the need for a systematic strengthening of data use for decision-making and a roadmap to doing so.
Spotlight on family planning
Family planning providers play an important role in ensuring that clients are offered a full range of family planning methods. This qualitative study explores providers’ views on three hormonal FP methods and why they think young women may choose these methods in Niger.
This study examines the association between family planning discussions with health professionals during contact points on the maternal, newborn and child health continuum of care and timing of modern contraceptive uptake and method type in the one-year following childbirth in six regions of Ethiopia among adolescent girls and young women.
Community engagement has been central in facilitating the acceptance of the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision programme, especially in non-circumcising communities. This study uses the case of the development of community engagement plans for sustainability of VMMC in Zambia to illustrate diversity of stakeholders, their power, roles, and strategies in community engagement.
Benefits of Gates Open Research for researchers
Gates Open Research puts the decisions of what, when, and how to publish in the hands of authors.
It removes traditional barriers to publishing by focusing on the rigor and quality of work rather than perceived level of interest or novelty. This includes publishing null, negative, and confirmatory studies, which still add a valuable contribution to the academic record.
Authors can publish over 10 different article types that go beyond the traditional Research Article, such as Data Notes, Clinical Practice Articles, Method Articles, Systematic Reviews, and more. These enable researchers to tell the full story of their work, by publishing the variety of outputs that naturally result from the research cycle.
Our post-publication peer review model offers an innovative alternative to traditional publishing, where long delays between submission and publication are expected. On Gates Open Research, you can publish without delay while waiting for peer review to complete, which is vital in rapidly evolving global health fields.
Additionally, publishing is free for all eligible authors, with article processing charges funded centrally by the Gates Foundation.
With fully open publication as standard on Gates Open Research, you can receive credit for your work across the research cycle as anyone can read, cite, and use your work, including policymakers, practitioners, and fellow researchers.
To support this, Gates Open Research also advocates a rigorous open data policy, enabling others to replicate your study, reproduce the original findings, or reuse the data to support their own work.
Finally, all articles that pass peer review are indexed in major industry databases, such as PubMed and Scopus.
Start your own publishing journey
If you’re ready to join the 3,000+ Gates-funded researchers already publishing with Gates Open Research, find out more about the platform and submit your research today.
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