Europe PMC Team

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[Peer review is  
the cornerstone of how we decide what research to publish. As
currently  
implemented, it generally consists of two or three referees giving
anonymous  
comments on a research article prior to publication ... or ...
rejection. Much  
has been written about the failings of this process (a very small sample
of  
illustrative references are given below). A few brave new journals are  
exploring new models of peer review, driving more openness, notable
examples  
being the BMJ and F1000 Research, while software and standards that
enable  
comments on web pages make post-publication peer review technically
possible.  
Why then, given decades of both grumbling and discussion, do we still
cling to  
a process that was invented for a different technological era? Open and
post  
publication peer review represents a sea change in behaviour across a  
community: we are a conservative lot and this will not happen fast,
which is  
probably for the good as not everything about peer review is
wrong.]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}

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[One  
of the issues at the heart of the matter is that peer review is
something that  
every researcher spends time doing, for which they receive no credit, in
spite of  
the generally agreed opinion that it is a Good Thing. The lack of credit
is  
exacerbated by the culture of anonymity that surrounds peer review --
how can  
you be credited publicly for something that can only be seen by a
handful of  
people?]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}

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[Enter  
]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}[[Publons]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](https://publons.com/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}[: a start-up that aims to help  
researchers get credit for peer review (ref.
]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}[[Wikipedia]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publons)[).
They have quite  
nimbly navigated the complexities of anonymity and credit by putting
you, the  
user, in control of how much to reveal of yourself as a reviewer. By
sending  
Publons the acknowledgement email received on completion of a review,
Publons  
adds a note that you have reviewed for that journal in a given year --
which  
suits classic-style anonymous reviews. If you wish, you can upload the
review  
you wrote, make it public (unless the journal forbids it), and link it
to your  
profile. Publons assigns points for each review, so the more reviews
you  
register, and the more open you get, the higher your score. As yet, the
review  
stubs are not pushed to ORCID, although you can use ORCID to log in and
display  
your ORCID iD on your Publons profile page. See Alex Bateman's profile
as a  
nice
example: ]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}[[https://publons.com/author/259342/alex-bateman#profile]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](https://publons.com/author/259342/alex-bateman#profile)

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[[]{style="font-family: \"arial\" , \"sans-serif\"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"}]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}  
[Via  
the Europe PMC External Links Service\*, there are now almost 40,000
links from  
articles in Europe PMC to reviews on Publons. While open
pre-publication  
reviews are still only available in a minority of cases (see for
example:
]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}[[http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/22004514]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/22004514)[),  
the framework is nevertheless there to build on this more open
behaviour. We  
except the number of available reviews to grow as Publons partners
with  
publishers, reviewers get bolder, and post-publication options are
used.]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}

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[Just  
one grumble (there had to be one somewhere): browsing the reviewers on
the  
Publons website, the gender balance, or lack of it, is striking. I
counted only  
\~6 women in the top 100 reviewers. Whether this is an artefact of the
early  
adopters of Publons or indicative of deeper bias in the peer review
system,  
more openness can only
inform.]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}
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[\*The Europe PMC  
]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}[[External
Links
Service]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](http://europepmc.org/LabsLink)[
was launched  
in 2013 and is a mechanism for people to publish links from articles in
Europe  
PMC to related information or tools. The service has enabled articles on
Europe  
PMC to be enriched with links to content as varied as data, press
releases, and  
article full text (where it's not already held by Europe
PMC).]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}

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[All of our  
External Links providers can be discovered by using our
]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}[[advanced
search
page]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](http://europepmc.org/advancesearch)[
-- the field  
at the bottom of the form. You can find out more about the Europe PMC
External  
Links Service and how to get involved
]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}[[here]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](http://europepmc.org/LabsLink){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}[.]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}

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1.  [[http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1420798]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1420798)
2.  [[https://thewinnower.com/posts/what-s-wrong-with-peer-review-a-roundup]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](https://thewinnower.com/posts/what-s-wrong-with-peer-review-a-roundup)
3.  [[http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-changed-world-now-it-needs-change-itself-how-science-goes-wrong]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}](http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-changed-world-now-it-needs-change-itself-how-science-goes-wrong)

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[[Contributed by Jo McEntyre
(]{style="line-height: 115%;"}[@jomcentyre](https://twitter.com/jomcentyre){style="line-height: 115%;"}) and
Anna
Kinsey.]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}  
[[  
]{style="color: black; font-family: \"arial\" , \"sans-serif\"; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"}  
[Stay in touch  
with what's happening at Europe PMC by following us on
Twitter ]{style="line-height: 115%;"}[@EuropePMC_News](https://twitter.com/EuropePMC_news){style="line-height: 20.7px;"}]{style="font-family: \"helvetica neue\" , \"arial\" , \"helvetica\" , sans-serif;"}

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[Peer review is the cornerstone of how we decide what research to publish. As currently implemented, it generally consists of two or three referees giving anonymous comments on a research article prior to publication … or … rejection.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

A step towards open peer review