Springer Nature welcomes open letter on peer review reports
London, 29 August 2018
We are delighted to be partnering with other publishers in promoting transparency in the peer review process by signing ASAPbio’s open letter. As a leading publisher in open research, Springer Nature has long championed the move to greater transparency in peer review in particular through the BMC portfolio, which has a well-established tradition of pioneering new forms of peer review.
As a signatory through BMC and Nature Communications to ASAPbio’s open letter on the publication of peer review reports, we encourage other publishers and journals to join us in promoting this approach in general and this initiative in particular.
We have been championing the open approach for some time now. Since BMC first introduced open peer review in 1999, the number of journals across the BMC’s portfolio now publishing open peer review reports alongside articles has grown to 70 journals.
Nature Communications also operates a transparent peer review process. Both have co-signed the open letter pledging to continue to advocate transparency in peer review.
Rachel Burley, Publishing Director, BMC Group, says: “As the original pioneers of open peer review, BMC has actively engaged with the research community for many years to better understand their evolving needs, as well as the benefits and challenges to opening up peer review.”
“Our long experience of open review has shown us that a pragmatic balance has to be struck between providing an efficient and timely service to authors and the ideal of full transparency, where the mandatory requirement of publishing reviewers’ details may have unintended consequences in discouraging and deterring some researchers from becoming reviewers.”
“We will continue to require the publication of peer review reports alongside articles in the 70 BMC journals that already operate open peer review. We will also continue to actively advocate for transparent and open peer review with the aim of introducing this approach across the wider BMC portfolio over time.”
Jenny Gimpel
Director of Communications, Open Research
Springer Nature
T: +44 (0)20 7843 4837
M: +44(0)7884 547 505
E: jenny.gimpel@springernature.com
A pioneer of open access publishing, BMC has an evolving portfolio of high quality peer-reviewed journals including broad interest titles such as BMC Biology and BMC Medicine, specialist journals such as Malaria Journal and Microbiome, and the BMC Series. At BMC, research is always in progress. We are committed to continual innovation to better support the needs of our communities, ensuring the integrity of the research we publish, and championing the benefits of open research. BMC is part of Springer Nature, giving us greater opportunities to help authors connect and advance discoveries across the world.
Nature Research is a portfolio of high-quality products and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences – including journals, databases and researcher services – dedicated to serving the scientific community.
Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading, international weekly journal of science. Nature Research also publishes a range of Nature branded subscription journals, the leading open access multidisciplinary journal Nature Communications, other open access journals including Scientific Reports, and a range of Nature Partner Journals published in partnership with institutions and societies. Together, these journals publish some of the world's most significant scientific discoveries.
Online, nature.com provides over nine million unique visitors per month with Nature Research content, including news and comment from Nature, and the leading scientific jobs board, Naturejobs. Nature Research also offers a range of researcher services, including online and in-person training and expert language and editing services. For more information, please visit nature.com and follow @nresearchnews. Nature Research is part of Springer Nature.
Springer Nature advances discovery by publishing robust and insightful research, supporting the development of new areas of knowledge, making ideas and information accessible around the world, and leading the way on open access. Key to this is our ability to provide the best possible service to the whole research community: helping authors to share their discoveries; enabling researchers to find, access and understand the work of others; supporting librarians and institutions with innovations in technology and data; and providing quality publishing support to societies.
As a research publisher, Springer Nature is home to trusted brands including Springer, Nature Research, BioMed Central, Palgrave Macmillan and Scientific American. For more information, please visit springernature.com and @SpringerNature.
