What’s with Faculty of 1000?

Faculty of 1000 is a paid subscription service that attempts to curate the vast scientific literature by having experts (presumably 1000 of them?) write blurbs for papers they think are noteworthy. I’ve used it a few time when trying to find a journal club paper. I can see its utility for getting a sense of what’s interesting outside your own field.

I was wondering if having a paper listed on F1000 is seen as a plus. I’ve seen it on others’ CVs, so I put it on mine as well. Is that douchey? No idea. Pretty much everything about self-promotion feels douchey and triggers Impostor Syndrome for me, so it’s hard to tell.

I was also wondering if F1000 helps with the visibility of a paper, so I looked at the page view / downloads by day for the one paper of mine listed on F1000.

So, judging from this, pretty much everyone who had even a passing interest in the paper probably saw it before F1000 recommended it, and F1000 did not give it any additional boost. Maybe there is a delayed/prolonged effect to F1000. Or maybe if someone who already read it saw it again on F1000, they would be subtly manipulated into raising their opinion of it. I have no idea. The takeaway in my specific case is that F1000, though it may be useful for those browsing the literature (its primary purpose), isn’t that much of a value-add from an author’s perspective of reaching a wider audience.

So putting it on your CV basically is saying “one person who F1000 deemed a leader in their field thought that this was interesting.” Kinda faint praise. From my perspective, I was happy it was listed by someone outside my immediate field, which means it was interesting to at least one person who does not do exactly what I do. During the review process, the one reviewer who was clearly outside my sub-field thought the paper was shit and said so at great length and in terms bordering on the personal. Based on this, I was anxious that the attitude from the broader field would be dismissive. So n=2 and a split decision, at least.

---