Guidelines for Article Preparation for Submission
Article Guidelines
Gates Open Research publishes different article types across all the
fields funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, namely global health, global development and global policy and
advocacy.
Submission to Gates Open Research is available only to Gates-funded researchers: Each publication
must have at least one author who has been, or still is, a recipient of a Gates Foundation grant.
We aim to make it easy for authors and, where possible, offer some flexibility in terms of formats
and structure. Specific requirements do apply to some article types, however; please choose from
the article type-specific instructions listed below.
Articles submitted after August 2024 will first be published on our associated preprint server VeriXiv, and will undergo peer review there. Only once the article has passed peer review will the version of record article be published on Gates Open Research and indexed accordingly. Please review the details of Gates Open Research's publishing model and our policies before you
submit.
Manuscripts can be submitted as Word (DOC or DOCX) or rich text format (RTF) files. If you have any questions about suitable file formats, please email us.
Research Articles
Research Articles should present original findings, such as results of basic and translational
research, clinical and epidemiologic studies, or clinical trials, as well as qualitative and
observational research relating to any of the areas funded by the Gates Foundation, including
global health and development, agriculture and education. Null and negative findings and reanalyses
of previous studies leading to new results, as well as confirmatory results, are encouraged.
Method Articles
Method Articles describe new experimental, observational, or computational methods, or
tests/procedures in basic, translational or applied research, and should have been well tested.
This includes new study methods, substantive modifications to existing methods or innovative
applications of existing methods to new models or research questions. We welcome technical articles
that describe tools that facilitate the design or performance of experiments, provide data analysis
features or assist medical treatment such as drug delivery devices.
Study Protocols
Study Protocols describe in detail any study design, including (but not limited to) experimental
design of basic, translational and applied research, epidemiological studies and systematic
reviews, or protocols defining research questions and empirical methods in global development,
economics or education. All protocols for randomised clinical trials must be registered and follow
the SPIRIT
guidelines. Study pre-protocols (i.e. discussing provisional study designs) may also be
submitted and will be clearly labelled as such when published. Study Protocols for pilot and
feasibility studies may also be considered.
Systematic Reviews
Systematic Reviews should usually be based on medical interventions or animal model studies, but
can also be suitable for agricultural intervention studies, education, economics or other areas of
social sciences. Systematic Reviews should deal with a clearly formulated question and use
systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically assess the relevant research.
Systematic Reviews should be written following the PRISMA reporting guidelines.
Software Tool Articles
A Software Tool Article should include the rationale for the development of the tool and details of
the code used for its construction. The article should provide examples of suitable input data sets
and include an example of the output that can be expected from the tool and how this output should
be interpreted.
Clinical Practice Articles
Clinical Practice Articles describe case series (i.e. group or series of case reports involving
patients who were given similar treatment), but should not be based on a single case (single cases
are published as Case Reports).
Research Notes
Research Notes include single-finding papers that can be reported with one or two illustrations
(figures/tables), descriptions of unexpected observations, and lab protocols.
Data Notes
Data Notes are brief descriptions of scientific datasets that promote the potential reuse of
research data and include details of why and how the data were created; they do not include any
analyses or conclusions.
Case Reports
A medical Case Report should be original and provide adequate detail of a single patient case. It
does not need to describe an especially novel or unusual case as there is benefit from collecting
details of many standard cases.
Open Letters
Open Letters are short, peer-reviewed articles discussing policies relevant to a broad research
community, presenting guidelines or white papers, or announcing new initiatives. An Open Letter
should usually represent the views of a Gates-funded consortium or group of researchers;
publication does not imply endorsement by the Gates Foundation.
Correspondence
Correspondence articles are short, peer reviewed comments directly relating to one or more articles
published in Gates Open Research. Correspondence articles must provide scholarly discussion,
supported by evidence from the published literature.
Editorials
Editorials are short personal perspectives about topics relevant to a specific article collection
or gateway on Gates Open Research.