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Peer review – the evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field – is at the heart of scholarly communications. Whether evaluating a journal article for publication, a paper to be presented at a conference, a faculty member for promotion, or a grant proposal, a rigorous peer review process helps ensure that a good decision is made.
To honor and celebrate peer review, a small group of organizations, including ORCID, is planning a week of activities, events, and publications. Peer Review Week 2015 will run from Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October, and will include a series of blog posts and interviews, a social media campaign (#peerrevwk15), a webinar on trust and transparency in peer review, and more.
The idea for Peer Review Week grew out of informal conversations between ORCID, ScienceOpen, and Wiley. Each organization has a different perspective on peer review and has been working independently on various peer review initiatives. Coordinating efforts enables us to share widely and powerfully the message that good peer review, whatever shape or form it might take, is critical to scholarly communications. We are delighted that Sense About Science has also joined the week to ensure the wider benefits of peer review – as a quality mark and tool for making sense of science claims – are shared with the public.
As our Executive Director, Laure Haak, says: “Researchers spend a substantial amount of time reading and reviewing, but are rarely acknowledged for this important contribution to the community. We are pleased to be part of Peer Review Week and the effort to increase recognition for review activities.”
ScienceOpen’s CEO, Stephanie Dawson, explains that: “Our goal at ScienceOpen is to help re-build trust in the peer review process by making it entirely transparent. We facilitate Post-Publication Peer Review from named individual experts with five or more peer-reviewed publications listed on their ORCID to nearly 10 million open access articles and toll stubs currently available on the platform. We’re delighted to participate in this inaugural Peer Review Week”
Victoria Murphy, Programme Manager of Sense About Science adds: “Peer review is an essential arbiter of scientific quality, and asking ‘Is it peer reviewed?’ helps people to query the status of science and research reported in the media. So during this inaugural Peer Review Week, we want to share that question as widely as possible. Raising awareness of the value of peer review is vital for maintaining quality in science.”
And Philip Carpenter, Wiley’s Executive Vice President, Research, says: “At Wiley we believe that peer review is the foundation for safeguarding the quality and integrity of scientific and scholarly research. Peer review is under increasing public scrutiny, and we feel it is important to highlight the crucial role that peer review plays in protecting trust in scholarly communication.”
You can follow Peer Review Week 2015 activities on twitter #peerrevwk15