Looking back at 2023: a year in review of Wellcome Open Research

As we approach the end of 2023, we’re reflecting on some of the achievements of Wellcome Open Research and its authors over the year. We’re also exploring the five most-read articles of the year and showcasing some of the research being covered by news publications and policies around the world.

Read on to find out more.

2023 in numbers

With Wellcome Open Research approaching its seventh anniversary in March 2024, the platform continues to go from strength to strength in supporting the Wellcome research community.

Retaining its spot as the most-popular open access publishing venue for Wellcome-funded researchers (up to November 2023), this success has been driven in part from the Tree of Life collaboration, which has seen over 350 Tree of Life Data Notes published in 2023.

In total, 526 articles had been published on Wellcome Open Research in 2023 at the time of writing, sharing insights into everything from community eye screening in Botswana, India, Nepal and Kenya to malaria vector control in Africa.

295 of these articles have passed peer review so far, going on to be indexed in PubMed Central, Scopus, and other major databases.

Articles published in 2023 have accrued over 31,800 views and over 4,700 downloads over the year – reflecting both the significant visibility of articles published on the platform and the benefits for authors in reaching wider audiences when publishing open access.

Research in the news and in policymaking

One key benefit of publishing research in an open access venue like Wellcome Open Research is the ability to communicate work beyond the immediate academic community, including reaching strategic stakeholders like journalists and policymakers.

A number of Wellcome Open Research authors have been featured in news articles and cited in policies around the world in 2023, increasing the real-world impact of their work.

COVID-19 – exploring the implications of long-term condition type and extent of multimorbidity on years of life lost: a modelling study

Published in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aimed to estimate years of life lost attributable to COVID-19, including adjustments for those patients with underlying long-term conditions.

With subsequent updates and revisions as data became available, the study found that, even when accounting for long-term conditions, deaths from COVID-19 represented a substantial burden in terms of per-person years of life lost.

The Research Article has over 89,000 views, over 3,000 downloads, and was cited in the Russian-language 2023 World Health Organization policy document, ‘Lessons learned in light of the pandemic: A new strategy for health and sustainable development: A review of the evidence base’.

A living systematic review protocol for COVID-19 clinical trial registrations

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, and in the months after, the research community responded with a significant proliferation of independent clinical trials assessing diagnostic methods and preventative strategies.

In order to bring together global evidence and distill disparate studies into action, resources to track clinical trials around the world was needed.

This living systematic review provided an open, accessible and frequently updated resource summarising the characteristics of COVID-19 clinical trial registrations.

The Study Protocol has over 6,000 views, over 600 downloads, and was cited in the World Health Organization report ‘Drugs to prevent COVID-19: living guideline, 24 March 2023’.

There is no market for new antibiotics: this allows an open approach to research and development

This Open Letter argues that there is an increasingly urgent need for new antibiotics, yet a significant and persistent economic problem when it comes to developing such medicines, stemming from the perceived need for a “market” to drive commercial antibiotic development.

The authors explore abandoning the market as a prerequisite for successful antibiotic research and development, and highlight that this can make research and development more openly collaborative, a mechanism that has been demonstrably effective for the R&D underpinning the response to the COVID pandemic.

The Open Letter has over 5,000 views, over 600 downloads, and was cited in the European Commission Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services 2023 report, ‘Improving access to medicines and promoting pharmaceutical innovation’.

Case Report: A gambling-related suicide in rural Malawi

As in many other countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Malawi’s commercial gambling sector has grown considerably in recent years. Driven by the widespread availability of internet through mobile devices, the industry has penetrated both urban and rural settings.

While increasing attention is being paid to this trend, most research focusses on sports betting and there is a deficit of papers that document gambling-related harms.

This article presents a narrative case report of a 16-year-old boy, ‘Wati’ (pseudonym), who lived in rural Malawi and took his own life after gambling and losing money that did not belong to him. It highlights that underage individuals participate in gambling in Malawi, that individuals can develop harmful habits, and that their gambling is not confined to sports betting.

It also provides evidence that there is a lack of accessible services for people who develop harmful gambling practices, and more services would be beneficial for those at risk.

The Case Report has over 1,000 views, 120 downloads, and was covered in the Guardian in May 2023, ‘Regulatory void’: online gambling firms accused of exploiting lucrative African markets’.

This year’s five most-read articles

Articles published on Wellcome Open Research this year covered a whole range of research topics and themes, and we’ve identified the most-read articles of 2023.

The Behaviour Change Technique Ontology: Transforming the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy

Our most-read article of 2023, with over 1,100 views, highlights the significant variation in descriptions of behaviour change interventions, which undermines the ability to synthesise evidence or replicate interventions for evaluation or implementation.

This is a barrier to accumulating evidence about intervention effectiveness and thus making recommendations for research, policy, and practice, and also hinders developing more effective interventions.

In response to this, this Research Article provides the Behaviour Change Technique Ontology, which aims to provide a standard terminology and comprehensive classification system for the content of behaviour change interventions that can be reliably used to describe interventions.

Pf7: an open dataset of Plasmodium falciparum genome variation in 20,000 worldwide samples

Our second most-read article, with over 1,000 views, introduces an updated dataset of over 20,000 Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite genomes.

The dataset is the largest malaria dataset of its kind, is freely available to download, and can even be analysed in the cloud using a python package.

This resource aims to help researchers keep track of large-scale genetic variation in malaria parasites, enabling easier identification of when the parasite begins to evade drugs, vaccines, or other measures.

Find out more about the article in our author interview.

Genomes on a Tree (GoaT): A versatile, scalable search engine for genomic and sequencing project metadata across the eukaryotic tree of life 

Our third most-read article, with 470 views, introduces Genomes on a Tree (GoaT): a new genomics search engine helping researchers to understand all life on Earth.

Developed by the Tree of Life and Wellcome Sanger Institute, GoaT is a searchable datastore of genomic and sequencing project metadata across all known eukaryotes, and is part of the Tree of Life and Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) goal to generate chromosomal genome assemblies of all described eukaryotic species on Earth.

The software aims to ensure resources are used as efficiently as possible worldwide by providing a public space for genome mapping projects to announce their intentions and to document progress to help avoid large-scale duplication where the lists of target taxa overlap.

Find out more about the article in our author interview.

ACORN (A Clinically-Oriented Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network) II: protocol for case based antimicrobial resistance surveillance

Antimicrobial resistance surveillance is essential for empiric antibiotic prescribing, infection prevention and control policies and to drive novel antibiotic discovery. However, most existing surveillance systems are isolate-based without supporting patient-based clinical data, and not widely implemented especially in low- and middle-income countries

In our fourth most-read article, with over 430 views, authors introduce ACORN II, a comprehensive antimicrobial resistance surveillance activity which advocates pragmatic implementation and prioritises improving local diagnostic and antibiotic prescribing practices through patient-centred data collection. 

Malaria Burden Stratification in Malawi- A report of a consultative workshop to inform the 2023-2030 Malawi Malaria Strategic Plan

Malawi’s National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) is developing a new strategic plan for 2023-2030 to combat malaria, and recognizes that a blanket approach to malaria interventions is no longer feasible.

To inform this new strategy, the NMCP set up a task force comprising 18 members from various sectors, which convened a meeting to stratify the malaria burden in Malawi and recommend interventions for each stratum.

The final article on our most-read list, with over 300 views,is a Research Article which provides an overview of this workshop, and identifies next steps for the plan.

Looking to the future

We want to take this opportunity to thank all the authors and peer reviewers who have published and reviewed with Wellcome Open Research this year.

We look forward to seeing more cutting-edge research published in 2024, and to welcoming more authors to the platform.

If you’re new to Wellcome Open Research and would like to learn more, or are just looking for more information on the platform and how it works, visit the website for more information and what you can expect when submitting your research.