On February 7–9, 2018, editors, publishers, funders and researchers gathered at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD, to discuss innovations in peer review. A clear majority of participants at the meeting agreed that publishing peer review reports (i.e., the contents of peer review, whether anonymised or not), would benefit the research community by increasing transparency of the assessment process. These benefits include 1) increased reviewer and editorial accountability, 2) training opportunities to educate students about the peer-review process, 3) enhancing readers’ understanding of the article in the context of the field, and 4) a pathway to providing credit for peer review. Evidence suggests that publishing peer review reports does not change the quality of reviewers’ assessment.
With the above benefits in mind, the open letter on the publication of peer review reports has been created to highlight the signatories’ commitment to publishing peer review reports and author responses alongside the final, published articles. You can read a Nature commentary on the open letter here. eLife, which already publishes reports as part of its consultative and transparent peer review process, is pleased to be an original signatory.
Open letter on the publication of peer review reports
We, the undersigned journals, recognise the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable or undertake to enable the publication of all of the content of peer review, but not necessarily the names of reviewers (this is also called open peer review reports) and author responses alongside final, published articles.
We recognise that implementations of published peer review reports may vary – with some journals mandating it for all published articles, while others may offer authors an opt-in or opt-out option – providing an opportunity to compare experiments across different journal policies and fields. In the pursuit of best practices, we commit to sharing information about community responses to varied implementations.
We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognise the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.
Signatories
Journal | Publisher | Contact | Expected implementation date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Molecular Biology of the Cell | ASCB | David Drubin | January 2019 | |
Journal of Cell Biology | Rockefeller University Press | Rebecca Alvania & Jodi Nunnari | Late 2018 | |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B | Royal Society | Prof Spencer Barrett, FRS | Early 2019 | |
Development Journal of Cell Science | Company of Biologists | Claire Moulton | Early 2019 | |
Progress in Neurobiology | Elsevier | Bahar Mehmani | December 2018 | |
PLOS Biology PLOS Computational Biology PLOS Genetics PLOS Medicine PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases PLOS ONE PLOS Pathogens | PLOS | Veronique Kiermer | Q2 2019 | |
4open | EDP Sciences | Claus Roll | Early 2019 | Authors and peer reviewers opt-in. |
Annals of Anatomy | Elsevier | Bahar Mehmani | Already implemented | |
Proceedings of the Royal Society A | Royal Society | Prof Sir Mark Welland FRS | Already implemented | |
Royal Society Open Science | Royal Society | Prof Jeremy Sanders FRS | Already implemented | |
Open Biology | Royal Society | Prof David Glover FRS | Already implemented | |
Nature Communications | Nature Publishing Group | Magdalena Skipper | Already implemented | |
eLife | eLife Sciences Publications | Mark Patterson | Already implemented | eLife publishes the decision letter, which doesn't necessarily contain the full peer review reports, and the author response. |
Wellcome Open Research | Wellcome Trust | Robert Kiley | Already implemented | All peer review reports are published, along with the names of the reviewers. |
F1000Research | F1000 | Rebecca Lawrence | Already implemented | All peer review reports are published, along with the names of the reviewers. |
The EMBO Journal EMBO Reports EMBO Molecular Medicine Molecular Systems Biology | EMBO Press | Bernd Pulverer | Already implemented | |
Archives of Public Health BioData Mining Biology Direct BMC Anesthesiology BMC Cancer BMC Cardiovascular Disorders BMC Clinical Pathology BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine BMC Dermatology BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders BMC Emergency Medicine BMC Endocrine Disorders BMC Family Practice BMC Gastroenterology BMC Geriatrics BMC Health Services Research BMC Hematology BMC Infectious Diseases BMC International Health and Human Rights BMC Medical Education BMC Medical Ethics BMC Medical Genetics BMC Medical Genomics BMC Medical Imaging BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making BMC Medical Research Methodology BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders BMC Nephrology BMC Neurology BMC Nursing BMC Nutrition BMC Obesity BMC Ophthalmology BMC Oral Health BMC Palliative Care BMC Pediatrics BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth BMC Psychiatry BMC Psychology BMC Public Health BMC Pulmonary Medicine BMC Rheumatology BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation BMC Surgery BMC Urology BMC Women's Health Cardiovascular Ultrasound CVIR Endovascular (SpringerOpen) Diagnostic and Prognostic Research Environmental Health Head & Face Medicine Health Research Policy and Systems Human Resources for Health Implementation Science Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery Journal of Foot and Ankle Research Journal of Medical Case Reports Nutrition Journal Pilot and Feasibility Studies Population Health Metrics Reproductive Health Research Integrity and Peer Review Research Involvement and Engagement Scoliosis and Spinal Disorders Systematic Reviews Trials | BioMed Central | Rachel Burley | Already implemented | |
Annales Geophysicae Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Biogeosciences Climate of the Past Earth Surface Dynamics Earth System Dynamics Earth System Science Data Geoscientific Model Development Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics Ocean Science Soil Journal Solid Earth The Cryosphere Wind Energy Science | Copernicus Publications | Dr Xenia van Edig | Already implemented | |
The BMJ BMJ Open BMJ Open Science BMJ Paediatrics Open | BMJ | Dr Theodora Bloom | Already implemented | All peer review reports are published, along with the names of the reviewers. |
The Plant Cell | ASPB | Dr Sabeeha Merchant | Already implemented | |
Plant Direct | ASPB | Dr Ivan Baxter | Already implemented | |
Publications Sci Life | MDPI | Dr Martyn Rittman | Already implemented | |
PeerJ | PeerJ | Jason Hoyt & Pete Binfield | Already implemented | https://peerj.com/reviews. Opt-in author choice. 80% opt-in. |
eNeuro | SfN | Suzanne Rosenzweig & Melissa Garcia | Already implemented | Authors can choose to publish their responses, and the reviewing editor decides whether to put original reviewer comments or a synopsis into the Synthesis. |
For any publishers wishing to join the list, please email jessica.polka@asapbio.org.
We welcome comments/questions from researchers as well as other journals. Please annotate publicly on the article or contact us at hello [at] elifesciences [dot] org.
For more news from eLife, sign up to receive our bi-monthly newsletter. You can also follow @eLife on Twitter.