Publishing Terms & Definitions

Glossary

Approval Status: Approved

An Approved rating means that the reviewer has asked either for no changes to the article or only a few small changes. For original research, this means that the experimental design, including controls and methods, is adequate; results are presented accurately and the conclusions are justified and supported by the data. An article with two Approved ratings, or one Approved and two Approved with Reservations ratings, will be considered to have passed peer review.

Approval Status: Approved with Reservations

An Approved with Reservations rating means that the reviewer believes the paper has academic merit, but has asked for a number of small changes to the article, or specific, sometimes more significant revisions. An article with two Approved ratings, or one Approved and two Approved with Reservations ratings, will be considered to have passed peer review.

Approval Status: Not Approved

A Not Approved rating means that a reviewer considers the research in the article to have fundamental flaws and the work overall to be of poor quality. The article is still published and the authors are encouraged to revise their article to respond to the concerns raised by the reviewer.

Article Processing Charge (APC)

All content published on HRB Open Research is fully Open Access immediately on publication. The publication costs are covered through article processing charges, which are funded centrally by the HRB. This means that researchers funded by the HRB or working on HRB-funded/co-funded projects can publish on the platform without direct cost to them. More detail is available here.

Awaiting Peer Review

Peer review takes place after publication and articles that have not yet received any peer review reports are labelled as “Awaiting peer review”. Articles awaiting peer review are officially published and can be cited (for example in manuscripts, CVs, or grant applications), because the citation includes details of the reviewer status, making it clear to everyone what stage of peer review the article has reached. Readers who later follow the citation link to view the paper will be able to see its current peer review status.

CC-0 (Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication license)

Where possible, data associated with articles published in HRB Open Research should be made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC-0 license) to facilitate and encourage data re-use. Use of a CC-0 license also helps prevent ‘attribution stacking’, which occurs when combining separate datasets produced by different authors that are held under multiple different licenses.

CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution license)

HRB Open Research articles are published under a CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and leaves the copyright of the article with the current copyright holder (usually the author or his/her institution).

Crossmark

Crossmark is a version management tool from Crossref that enables users to check and see if an article has been updated. It is of particular benefit in the case of PDF files where, regardless of when the file was downloaded and where it has been stored, readers who are online can click on the Crossmark icon, and see if a new peer review report or a new version of the article is available. If one is available, Crossmark will link the user directly to the updated version.

Data note

HRB Open Research publishes Data Notes as an article type in its own right. Data Notes describe datasets and their associated protocols only, without any interpretation or conclusion. Many journals will accept submissions of full-length research articles that are based on datasets with a DOI and associated protocol information previously published. See the article guidelines for a full list of article types, and see our data policies to see which journals accept work based on published data notes.

DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

Each version of an article and each peer review report, as well as some datasets within articles, have their own unique. Every object with a DOI can be cited, so it is possible to reference a specific version of an article, a specific peer review report or a dataset within an article.

F1000Research

HRB Open Research is a platform controlled by the HRB, with F1000Research providing the publishing service, including development and maintenance of the technology underlying the publication platform, editorial and production services supporting the authors, reviewers and readers, and so on. F1000Research has been operating with this technology and the post-publication peer review model since 2013.

National Steering Group

The National Steering Group of HRB Open Research comprises individuals who have a strong interest in open research and improving the way research findings are disseminated. They do not act as ‘Editors’ in the traditional sense (i.e. they do not handle manuscripts nor make decisions to accept or reject a paper).

Open data

HRB Open Research requires full data deposition for all published articles. Data are made available under a CC-0 license. In the case of clinical trials or other research where patient privacy is a concern, if data cannot be adequately anonymised, we work with authors to establish appropriate levels of access control, while ensuring that researchers who do meet required standards can get access to the data quickly and easily.

Open peer review

The phrase “open peer review” is used to describe the formal, invited article review process and means that all reviewer names and peer review reports are publicly accessible.

Peer review report

Peer review reports are written by invited reviewers, and are open for all to read. They consist of an approval status (Approved, Approved with Reservations, or Not Approved) and comments that explain the status and present any suggestions for improvements. All peer review reports are assigned a DOI. Authors and other registered users can publicly comment on peer review reports.

Published

At HRB Open Research, an article is published online before peer review starts (and it cannot then be removed or withdrawn at a later stage, regardless of the outcome of the peer review). Published articles have passed our internal editorial check and are formatted and then put live - published - before peer review begins. As peer review progresses and peer review reports are received, they will appear alongside the published paper. Once an article receives sufficient positive peer review reports, it will be considered to have passed peer review.

Registered user

Registered users must supply both their name and affiliation on registering to create an account. A user must have an account and be a scientist in order to comment on HRB Open Research articles, to submit an article or to subscribe to our table of contents emails. Registration is free.

Reviewer

HRB Open Research reviewers are checked for suitability and any conflicts of interest. They are experts in the field of the article they have been invited to review, and their reports and approval statuses (Approved, Approved with Reservations, or Not Approved) ultimately determine whether or not a paper will pass peer review. Names of all reviewers (with their peer review reports) are openly published on HRB Open Research.

Revised Revised 

The 'Revised' badge is used to denote an article that has been revised by the authors, usually following reviewer and/or reader feedback. These revisions are published as new versions of the article, and are individually citable. The Revised badge contrasts with the 'Update' badge, which denotes a new version (often after the article has passed peer review and/or the peer review is considered complete), in which authors can add small developments relevant to research discussed in that article.

Update Update 

The ‘Update’ badge is used for new article versions following small developments. These Updates are published as new versions of the article (often after the article has passed peer review and/or the peer review is considered complete), and are individually citable. The Update badge contrasts with the ‘Revised’ badge, which indicates when the article has been revised, usually following reviewer and/or reader feedback.

User comments

Registered users can leave comments on articles and the accompanying peer review reports. Registered users must provide their full name and affiliation, which will be published alongside their comment. User comments on articles do not affect whether the article passes peer review or not, but they can help to provide additional perspectives on the article or on the reviewer's comments.

Versions

HRB Open Research authors can upload new versions of their articles, either to address comments made in peer review reports, or to update the paper for other reasons. Versions are linked and are individually citable, and older versions will display a clear notification that a new version has been uploaded.