Publish Your Reviews: promoting openness in peer review
Publish Your Reviews is an initiative encouraging peer reviewers to share their reviews and to contribute to open science and transparant research communication.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Publish Your Reviews, an initiative encouraging peer reviewers to publish their reviews alongside the preprint version of an article. Publish Your Reviews is an initiative of ASAPbio, a non-profit organization promoting open and innovative research communication. The initiative has been developed in close collaboration with Ludo Waltman, professor of Quantitative Science Studies at Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS).
Publish Your Reviews invites all researchers interested in promoting more open dialogue around published research to sign the following pledge:
When a journal invites me to review an article that is available as a preprint, I will publish my review alongside the preprint. I will make sure that the published version of my review does not include the journal name, a recommendation for publication, or other confidential information.
Why publish reviews?
Publishing reviews alongside preprints provides readers with additional context on preprints, pointing out strengths, weaknesses, and open questions. It also enables reuse of reviews, thereby reducing burden on editors and reviewers. In addition, it brings scientific discussions into the public domain, catalyzing a culture of open scholarly debate. Finally, publishing reviews surfaces the work of reviewers to a broader audience, promoting greater recognition for this important work.
Waltman adds: “I’ve become increasingly frustrated with the traditional closed pre-publication journal peer review system. Performing peer review in this system doesn’t seem a very useful way of spending one’s time. This has motivated me to develop the Publish Your Reviews initiative.” Waltman continues to perform peer review for journals, but last year he started to publish his reviews alongside the preprint version of an article.
What next?
Promoting open science is a key ambition of Leiden University. Waltman: “To show our commitment to open science, I invite all researchers at our university to sign the Publish Your Reviews pledge. I’m delighted that the first responses from colleagues in the Open Science Community Leiden are highly supportive.”
More information about Publish Your Reviews will be provided in a Zoom event organized by ASAPbio on July 19 at 18h CEST. Please register to join this event.
