Just published your Research Article?
Why stop there?
There are numerous benefits to sharing your research software. As a publisher, we have developed an article type tailored precisely for this purpose:
Software Tool Articles.
Software Tool Articles serve as a means to promote your software, enhancing its discoverability and visibility, whilst also presenting you, as the creator, with attribution and credit.
Software Tool Articles explore:
Why you developed the software
Details of the code, method, and analysis used
Examples of data input sets
Examples of outputs, and how to interpret these
Tips on how to maximize the tool’s potential
We welcome Software Tool Articles from all areas of research as well as articles describing tools created from existing software, web tools, apps, containers, packages, and workflows.
The benefits of publishing a Software Tool Article
Improve the reliability of your code
F1000Research operates a post-publication open peer review process which enables you to get feedback on your article and improve your software in ways you may not have come to alone. You can then incorporate these changes, such as fixing bugs or clarifying your methods, through our article versioning process.
Improve research reproducibility
Reproducibility is essential to good science. Software Tool Articles let you share contextual information about your tool, including details of the code and method used, and tips on how to maximise the tool’s potential. This enables others to easily reproduce, reuse, or modify the tool for new applications.
Increase the visibility of your research
Software Tool Articles are fully citable stand-alone articles with their own DOI. This gives your software its own bibliometric flag meaning that readers, such as those searching through PubMed, can discover and cite your research more easily.
Minimize research waste
The Software Sustainability Institute reports that software is fundamental to research and in fact, software can be an important research output on its own. By publishing a Software Tool Article, you ensure that your valuable research software doesn’t languish on a hard drive, avoiding its potential waste and underutilization.
Promote innovation and new software uses
By sharing your research software, you enable others to build upon it or adapt it to solve their own research problems; helping to support innovation and progress in your field.
Foster new collaborations
By publishing a Software Tool Article, you can increase the visibility of your research, opening up opportunities to discover new connections for collaborative research
Comply with funder and institutional open data policies
Many institutions and funders require that you share the data and software associated with your research project. Publishing a Software Tool Article can help you meet these requirements as it provides researchers with the code and contextual information they need to understand and analyze your software, enabling accurate replication and validation.
Featured Software Tool Articles
CELL5M: A geospatial database of agricultural indicators for Africa South of the Sahara
Koo J, Cox CM, Bacou M et al.
Read the articleSarek: A portable workflow for whole-genome sequencing analysis of germline and somatic variants
Garcia M, Juhos S, Larsson M et al.
Read the articleEffective image visualization for publications – a workflow using open access tools and concepts
Schmied C and Jambor HK.
Read the articlePhenoApp: A mobile tool for plant phenotyping to record field and greenhouse observations
Röckel F, Schreiber T, Schüler D et al.
Read the articleDiscover more from F1000Research
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A cross-disciplinary and open access publishing venue allowing researchers and industry professionals to connect across the breadth of software and hardware engineering.