eLife and PREreview partner to promote greater diversity in peer review

The two initiatives are continuing their joint efforts to increase the diversity of voices in scholarly review.
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eLife is pleased to announce today a new partnership with PREreview to engage more researchers from diverse backgrounds in peer review.

eLife and PREreview – an open project aimed at bringing more equity and diversity to the scholarly peer-review system – collaborated on a number of new initiatives last year. These included live-streamed preprint journal clubs, which brought together scientists globally for a series of virtual discussions around research posted as preprints. eLife also supported the pilot of PREreview Open Reviewers, an online peer review mentoring program that empowers early-career researchers to contribute to scholarly review.

With eLife at the cusp of exclusively reviewing manuscripts deposited as preprints, the two organisations are now continuing their joint efforts to involve more early-career researchers, and researchers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented within the peer-review process, in the public review of preprints. PREreview will work with eLife to extend the series of preprint journal clubs and develop a framework for scaling the PREreview Open Reviewers program to reach more research communities globally. They will also help create new ways to increase the engagement and use of eLife’s early-career reviewer pool.

Jennifer Gibson, eLife Head of Open Research Communication, says: “PREreview has done a fantastic job of engaging researchers worldwide in helping to quickly evaluate new findings. Their accessible, inclusive approach has created safe spaces for individuals with all kinds of backgrounds to come forward and share their expertise. Tapping this expertise is essential to evaluating the volume of new findings being put forward in preprints. We’re pleased to be able to back their efforts, and know the eLife community will also benefit.”

Daniela Saderi, Co-Founder and Director of PREreview, says: “We look forward to working with eLife to innovate in peer review and equip early-career researchers, particularly those from groups underrepresented in science, with the tools, resources and opportunities to engage in a rewarding review process of preprints. Together we will work to innovate while centering inclusivity, transparency and trust building amongst diverse research communities.”

PREreview engages the whole scientific community with collaborative and constructive full-length peer reviews of preprints. These preprint reviews are openly available for anyone to read, including editors and publishers who may consider the work for formal publication in a journal.

For more information about PREreview, visit https://prereview.org.

To read more about the PREreview Open Reviewers program, which started in October 2020 and will continue through the summer of 2021, see https://elifesciences.org/for-the-press/d04c6551/elife-supports-prereview-s-new-peer-review-mentoring-program-for-early-career-researchers.

To read more about the preprint journal club series, see https://elifesciences.org/for-the-press/1c959882/elife-and-prereview-partner-on-open-discussion-and-review-of-preprints.

And for more information about the eLife early-career reviewer pool, visit https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/31a5173b/elife-promotes-early-career-involvement-in-peer-review.

Media contacts

  1. Emily Packer
    eLife
    e.packer@elifesciences.org
    +441223855373

About

eLife is a non-profit organisation created by funders and led by researchers. Our mission is to accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours. We seek to promote a research culture that supports collaboration, diversity and inclusion, and openness, and we support preprints and open-science practices. eLife receives financial support and strategic guidance from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about.