F1000Research Publishes Pioneering "Living Article"

Houston, TX, April 25, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Two German behavioural neuroscientists, together with the open science publishing platform F1000Research, have created the first auto-updating figure within a scholarly scientific article that allows other researchers to contribute their own data to the figure.

The paper by Julien Colomb (Freie Universität) and Björn Brembs (Universität Regensburg) finds that a commonly used strain of fruit flies sourced from different laboratories, which are meant to be near-identical, actually show marked differences in walking behaviours (J. Colomb and B. Brembs F1000Research 3, 176; 2014).

Gregg Roman from the University of Houston, Texas, has now inserted his own data onto figure 4 in the paper. Other groups have also agreed to add their data to paper, using software developed by the article’s authors and F1000Research that automatically redraws the figure as new data is submitted.

This marks the debut of what F1000Research is calling a living figure – a concept that is already garnering significant interest from researchers for other articles.

Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director of F1000Research said: “The traditional anonymous pre-publication peer-review process can cause long delays before new results become visible. To circumvent the problem, F1000Research uses an author-led process, publishing all scientific research within a few days and then inviting peer review.

“Allowing outside researchers to post their data onto a published paper takes the open science publishing concept a step further. It not only enables immediate sharing of results as new research occurs, but it also provides a great tool in helping the research community quickly identify the level of reproducibility of a new discovery.”

For more information:
Andrew Baud, Tala (on behalf of F1000 Research), +44 (0) 20 3397 3383 or +44 (0) 7775 715775

f1000research.com/articles/3-176/v2