Why should I publish my protocol or grant proposal? – JMIR Publications

New in 2020: Because papers in JMIR Research Protocols (Why should I publish my protocol or grant proposal?) and JMIRx (What is JMIRx? ) cost less than US$1000, publication in these journals is essentially free of charge for University of California authors (as well as other institutional members).

JMIR Research Protocols (JRP) is a unique PubMed-indexed journal that publishes protocols and grant proposals from all areas of medicine. We are particularly interested in protocols, proposals, and ongoing studies in the areas of innovation and technology in health (in fact, we are trying to be the most complete repository of ongoing studies in this area), but JRP publishes research protocols and proposals from all areas of medical and health research.

Here are 11 reasons for why in this new age of technology-enabled transparency and open science, more and more investigators and students decide to publish their protocol early in the research process:

Publishing your protocol or grant proposal with JMIR Research Protocols creates an early scientific record of your novel methodologies, software, and/or innovations.
Your published protocol will facilitate subsequent publication of your study results in other journals, as it demonstrates that the methodology has been carefully developed and been peer-reviewed, and your protocol can be easily referenced. In fact, in a push to enhance transparency, some journals (such as the Annals in Internal Medicine) now require protocol publication (in addition to registration).
Protocol publication enhances transparency of research, reduces publication bias, prevents selective publication and selective reporting of research outcomes, prevents unnecessary duplication of research, helps patients and the public to know what trials are planned or ongoing into which they might want to enroll, and helps giving ethics review boards considering approval of new studies a view of similar work and data relevant to the research they are considering.
JRP is compatible with the concept of "Registered Reports" and since May 2018, published protocols in JMIR Res Protoc automatically receive an International Registered Report Identifier (What is a International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)?) and acceptance of the results paper is "in principle" guaranteed - see below and What is a Registered Report?
Developing methods/research processes and writing grant proposals is creative work and has intellectual value, even if the grant proposal is not funded. Publication helps authors to get credit for the methods development. Even if the proposal is not funded right away, it may be of use for others, and new collaborations and opportunities may emerge from publishing it
Peer-review of your proposal/protocol is a "dry-run" for the peer-review of your final study results (where reviewers typically critique the methods), and helps you to identify problems in your methods or reporting early on, while they can still be fixed
Protocol publication helps to solicit early feedback from a broader scientific (and lay) community, helps to improve methods, and enhances the quality/comprehensiveness of your research. For example, if you publish a protocol for a systematic review, colleagues may contact you to point out studies they conducted which should be included in your systematic review, or can help you to refine your search strategy
Another major advantage of publishing your protocol or grant proposal with JMIR Research Protocols is that you will receive a 20% discount on the Article Processing Fee (APF) for a subsequent publication of the full study results in any JMIR journal, including the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) or JMIR sister journals (e.g. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, JMIR Medical Informatics, JMIR Mental Health, JMIR Cancer, JMIR Public Health etc), which is a $300-500 value. See Which journals is JMIR Publications currently publishing? for a list of all eligible journals. Thus, the fee to publish in JMIR Res Protoc almost pays for itself. See How do I get a 20% discount on the Article Processing Fee if my protocol was previously published in JMIR Research Protocols?
If you submit to JMIR Research Protocols and upload existing peer-review reports (e.g. from the granting agency) as supplementary files, then the peer-review process will be painless (as your protocol/proposal is already peer-reviewed) and extra-fast, and we will publish the protocol for a 50% discounted APF (a $950 saving). Please note that you must provide the actual peer review reports in order to qualify for the discount.
We employ professional copyeditors, and all submissions are immediately deposited in PubMed Central as open access full text, will be in PubMed, and all authors retain the copyright.
Protocols and grant proposals can be submitted in any format (though we encourage to follow the SPIRIT guidelines)

If you have an existing grant proposal or research protocol, we make submission of articles easy: We don't want authors to spend a lot of time reformatting it, which is why our instructions are short and flexible. Just upload your existing word document for the initial peer-review. We do ask that you shorten very long protocols to approximately 20 manuscript pages (plus tables and figures) - additional information can be moved to Multimedia Appendices. Ideally, there should be add some top-level headings (IMRD, see below) to structure the manuscript like a journal article (eg, remove sections which describe the investigators and research environment, if this was required for a grant proposal). For more information on article types, see here: What are the article types for JMIR journals?

Registered Reports

JMIR Res Protocols is compatible with the concept of "Registered Reports" (a new-ish term by the Center for Open Science, see external link and below as well as What is a Registered Report?) which emphasizes the importance of the research question and the quality of methodology by conducting peer review prior to data collection.

This format is designed to reward best practices in adhering to the hypothetico-deductive model of the scientific method. It eliminates a variety of questionable research practices, including low statistical power, selective reporting of results, and publication bias, while allowing complete flexibility to report serendipitous findings.

"Because the study is accepted in advance, the incentives for authors change from producing the most beautiful story to the most accurate one."

--Chris Chambers, Professor at Cardiff University, Chair of the Registered Reports Committee supported by the Center for Open Science

What is unique about the JMIR Res Protoc's unique take on Registered Reports is that the reports are published as protocols/proposals in a separate journal, and the author/editor can pick from the wide range of JMIR journals the best journal that fits the story (see also Which journals is JMIR Publications currently publishing?).

Published protocols in JRP receive a Registered Report Identifier (What is a Registered Report Identifier?) and acceptance of the results paper is "in principle" guaranteed in any JMIR journal, plus authors receive a 20% discount on the Article Processing Fee of the RR2 if they previously published their RR1 (protocol) in JMIR Research Protocols (How do I get a 20% discount on the Article Processing Fee if my protocol was previously published in JMIR Research Protocols?).

Submit
Please let us know if you have any questions, or start the submission process at http://www.researchprotocols.org/author (in the submission process in step 1 please make sure that you choose a section that says “funded” to get the 50% discount).

We look forward to your submission and feedback.

Tip:

Are you looking for a rapid decision because you wish to cite your ongoing or pilot work in a grant proposal?

JMIR Res Protoc does not only publish accepted proposals or protocols, but also formative work, in-progress work, pilot studies, methods etc., which are useful to be cited in grant proposals.
consider fast-tracking your paper (How to fast-track (expedite) a paper and what are the benefits?)
make your submission available as Preprint (What are JMIR Preprints?). When you submit a paper to a JMIR journal, select "Open Peer-Review" as an option (What is open peer-review?). Your paper will then get a DOI and is immediately after submission citable as Preprint, which many grant agencies such as NIH or MRC now encourage.

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"Because the study is accepted in advance, the incentives for authors change from producing the most beautiful story to the most accurate one."

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