Researchfish was born out of the need to accurately quantify and assess the impact of research that had been supported by grant funding. Originally conceptualized for the United Kingdom, Researchfish now has data from international partners as well. This service helps funding institutions determine how effectively their grants have been utilized to create research outcomes that align with their mission. This information is then used to help these organizations record how they wish to channel grant funding in the future for maximum impact. Researchfish helps scientists to record all of their research outcomes in one place in a standardized manner. This database also helps research institutions and universities monitor and report on how their research scientists are using their grants. This is useful for reporting to funding bodies and attracting additional staff and students.
F1000 (or Faculty of 1000) is an online research community. F1000 now has 8,000 senior scientists and experts working in biology and medicine. F1000’s experts have been nominated by their peers. This community assigns a rating to academic articles and explains their value to the wider research community. This information is used to quantify the importance of each article. F1000 maintains a database of recommendations which is searchable and this helps the community identify key papers in many disciplines and stay updated on the latest developments. About 1,500 recommendations are contributed each month by the faculty community.
Researchfish and F1000 Partnership
Research outcomes reported in Researchfish will now include whether or not an article has been recommended by F1000’s faculty. This is an additional indicator of the quality and impact of a given research article. Subscribers to F1000Prime will be able to see additional information about the expert who recommended the article and why they chose to endorse it. Both platforms intend to create additional ways of collaborating in the future. The addition of F1000Research information will become available in February 2017.
Having the recommendations of the F1000 faculty alongside the research outcomes in Researchfish adds an important measure of its impact. To have a research article that you have written be recommended by someone who is a peer-nominated expert in your field is a good indicator of the meaningfulness of your work. This is an important validation for you but also an invaluable indicator to your research funders that an independent, objective assessment of your work has resulted in it being tagged as an essential paper in your field of research. Merging a standardized collection of research outcomes with this kind of expert recommendation therefore makes it easier for universities and funding bodies to assess the impact of work being carried out by their employees and grantees.
