eLife Latest: Welcoming our newest early-career reviewers in Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

New early-career reviewers will support eLife’s Public Review process.

In May, eLife published an open call for early-career researchers who were interested in reviewing manuscripts in Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics. We invited postdocs and independent investigators, who have been running their own group for less than five years, to apply to join our pool of early-career reviewers.

This invitation received an overwhelmingly positive response, with approximately 260 self-nominations submitted for new early-career reviewers at eLife.

Applications were reviewed by eLife Senior Editors Volker Dötsch and José Faraldo-Gómez, and six Reviewing Editors: Andrew Carter, Qiang Cui, Aaron Frank, Joanne Lemieux, Rina Rosenzweig and Maria Spies.

Reviewing Editor Qiang Cui says:

“It’s amazing to see so many talented young investigators who are motivated to participate in the unique peer-review process of eLife. With their impressive set of expertise, they will definitely contribute tremendously to ensure the quality and breadth of manuscripts published in eLife.”

Candidates have gradually been included in the early-career reviewer pool over the summer months and soon they will have opportunities to learn more about eLife’s consultative peer review, as well as Public Review, our new format of open review for preprints.

The invitation is part of our commitment to increase early-stage researchers' involvement in peer review at eLife, recognising their expertise and expanding our network of referees. eLife’s early-career reviewer pool was established in 2016 with support from the eLife Early-Career Advisory Group, and this open call builds upon similar initiatives in the past, including a call for early-career reviewers in evolutionary biology and genomics. While we operate rolling applications to the pool, we seek to raise the attention of researchers in specific disciplines, depending on the editorial needs of the journal. We’re hoping to announce more opportunities in other domains in the coming months.

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