Publisher F1000Research attracts target authors with Overleaf

Improving the submission experience for authors

F1000Research publishes articles and other outputs on scientific, scholarly, translational and clinical research across physical and life sciences, engineering, medicine, social sciences, and humanities. Its author-led process involves rapid publication of research with peer review of articles conducted after publication. 

Scholars from the fields of bioinformatics and genomics have particularly embraced F1000’s unique publishing model. However, prior to using Overleaf, it was difficult for F1000Research to accept LaTeX as a form of submission. Knowing that their users generally prefer LaTeX to format articles and do graphical notation, F1000’s editorial team wanted to improve author experience for LaTeX users. 

An integrated editorial process

Overleaf is now offered to authors to ease the writing and submission process to F1000Research. Overleaf developed custom LaTeX article templates for the publisher that authors can quickly and easily open from within the F1000Research author guidelines website. This allows authors to effortlessly write in the correct style and format, collaborate with colleagues through Overleaf, and then submit their finished article directly from Overleaf to F1000Research. 

From there, Overleaf is integrated into the F1000Research editorial process, allowing editors to efficiently review and update the article, submit changes back to the author with one click, and collaborate with the author on suggested article updates and changes.

F1000Research uses an author-led process, publishing all scientific research within a few days. Open, invited peer review of articles is conducted after publication, focusing on scientific soundness rather than novelty or impact. 

The publishing workflow is as follows: An author submits an article for publication. The editors check the submission against F1000Research editorial criteria and then they work with the author to get the article into the correct format to be published. For most LaTeX submissions, this is done through the Overleaf editorial workflow.

The peer review process begins once the article has been published. The F1000 team checks that the methods are described sufficiently for referees to assess them and to confirm that the source data supporting the presented results is included. The team also ensures that the article metadata is correct. The metadata is transferred automatically from Overleaf during the submission process, meaning no new data entry is required.

“Many bioinformaticians and biologists who use computational models have told us that they generally prefer using the LaTeX format over [Microsoft] Word,” said Michaela Torkar, Editorial Director, F1000 Research. “By working with Overleaf, we can offer this group of authors an alternative to Word, and this helps improve their overall experience with F1000Research.”