Since the 1660s, peer review has proved an essential dividing line for judging the difference between science and speculation.
We know that it can be tough for you as Editors to not only find appropriate reviewers willing to review for your journal, but to motivate them to keep reviewing, time and time again. Together with the research community, we are keen to explore ways to ease that pressure and are currently working on a number of peer-review pilots and innovations. One avenue we recently explored was a global competition seeking researchers’ thoughts on the future of peer review. This was inspired by the success of similar competitions such as the Elsevier Grand Challenge and the Executable Paper Grand Challenge.
In an issue of Reviewers’ Update earlier this year, we threw down the gauntlet to readers, asking them to submit ideas that could significantly add to the current peer-review system. We also invited entries that explored how Publishers and Editors can help early career researchers become reviewers, or how reviewers can be recognized by either their institutes or Publishers.
More than 800 readers took up the challenge and entries embraced all aspects of peer review, from improvements to the actual ‘mechanics’ of the process to how to reward reviewers. It was interesting to note that a great many entries detailed suggestions for rewarding reviewers in ways that can be noted on CVs. In addition, there was an intriguing dichotomy between entries that were firmly in favour of the extension of double blind type peer-review systems and those who advocated completely open peer review. The judges chose a list of finalists, whose ideas were published on the Peer Review Challenge website with an invitation to the academic community to post their comments. More than 300 of you responded and those comments were taken into account by the judges when making their final decision. Many teleconference calls and emails later, the final three winners were chosen and their winning entries can be found below.
Simon suggested introducing a standardized way to recognize the cumulative effort of a particular reviewer. He explains: “Peer reviews are an important service to the academic community and fundamental to academic publishing. I entered the Challenge because I feel strongly that reviewers should be recognized and rewarded in some way for the time and effort they invest – often on top of a very busy schedule – in preparing article reviews for journal Editors. I see the future of peer review as a positive feedback cycle whereby reviewers (especially early career researchers) – encouraged by an opportunity to enhance their reputation as a reliable and good reviewer and to receive journal and/or book discounts – prepare high quality helpful reviews that in turn help to make the job of journal Editors more straightforward. This way, authors, Editorsand reviewers all benefit from the peer-review process. To date, reviewers have received little benefit, let alone anything tangible. I envisage the acknowledgment of reviewers’ time and efforts through a widely recognized tangible accrediting system that would be well-known and citeable on a CV, which I have termed “Elsevier Reviewer Badges”.
Visit the Peer Review Challenge website for further details of Simon’s winning entry.
Visit the Peer Review Challenge website for further details of Michael’s entry.
In contrast to the previous ideas, Koen’s entry suggests that the online platform facilitating peer review could be improved. He suggests creating an integrated review application, which would, among other things, include an integrated PDF reader with annotation possibilities and generate a review template listing the changes to be made based upon annotations on the pdf. This would save reviewers’ time. Of his idea, Koen says: “As a scientist, reviewing for journals is considered an integral part of your work. However, given the voluntary nature of this task, often little time is budgeted towards it. Talking to colleagues it became apparent to me that reviewing for journals is something done when one has a few minutes to spare, e.g. on a flight, train or bus to the next meeting or commuting home. I entered the competition with the idea that a lot of time could be saved by integrating some of today's technology into a reviewing platform.
Koen’s ideas chime perfectly with current plans for Evise, Elsevier’s next-generation editorial system. The roll-out of Evise will begin in the second half of 2013 and will include online viewing and annotation of submissions. Reviewers and Editors will be able to view the manuscript and add comments to it online. These comments will then be saved with the submission and can be made available to the author. Koen’s winning entry will be shared with the Evise team.
Visit the Peer Review Challenge website for further details of Koen’s entry.
Clare graduated from University College Cork, Ireland, with a PhD in Marine Ecology in 2004 and since then she has worked in various aspects of publishing. She has been working with Elsevier since 2006 and is a Publisher on the Energy and Planetary Sciences portfolio where she has responsibility for 11 journals, across the nuclear energy, solar materials, bioenergy and greenhouse gas areas, along with three planetary sciences journals.