BMC continues to transform peer review, cutting out waste and speeding up the process
BMC, the first publisher to openly post named peer reviewer reports alongside articles, is announcing the launch of a formal portable peer review policy on BMC Biology. The policy aims to speed up the peer review process and decrease waste in publishing.
London, 18 December 2018
BMC, the first publisher to openly post named peer reviewer reports alongside articles, is announcing the launch of a formal portable peer review policy on BMC Biology. The policy aims to speed up the peer review process and decrease waste in publishing.
‘Portable peer review’ is the idea that if a manuscript is rejected from a journal for reasons other than being scientifically unsound (for example, perhaps the subject matter does not fit the journal’s remit) the peer review reports can be transferred elsewhere and re-used by others.
Dr Mirna Kvajo, Chief Editor of BMC Biology said: “We know academics’ time is precious, whether they are writing reviewer reports, or trying to find the right journal for publication. BMC has long been supportive of the idea of re-using peer review reports, in the hope that it will save time and effort for researchers, while reducing waste in the publishing process.”
BMC Biology has for years supported portable peer review practices, and recently also joined the NPRC alliance, a consortium of more than 60 journals committed to improving peer review in neuroscience.
Dr Kvajo adds: “With this new policy, we want to be forthright about the advantages of portable peer review, and prompt authors to consider bringing us their manuscripts with reports from other journals (along with reviewers’ identities, subject to their approval). In token, we’re happy to allow authors to take their reviewer reports from BMC Biology with them to other journals, including those outside of BMC and Springer Nature.”
The new Transfers and Portable Reviews Policy can be found on the BMC Biology website.
In May 2017, our report What might peer review look like in 2030? was published with Digital Science. Two of our recommendations were that publishers should:
- Experiment with different and new models of peer review, particularly those that increase transparency
- Work towards cross-publisher solutions that improve efficiency and benefit all stakeholders. Portable peer review has not taken off at any scale, but could make the publishing process more efficient for all involved.
In addition, in November BMC published the results of its transparent peer review trial. The trial found that there was no significant difference in the meantime to first decision between transparent review and single-blind review. For both sides of the trial, the average number of reviewers invited for each who accepted was 3.1.
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.
Springer Nature advances discovery by publishing robust and insightful research, supporting the development of new areas of knowledge and making ideas and information accessible around the world. 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; providing quality publishing support to societies; and championing the issues that matter – standing up for science, leading the way on open access and being powerful advocates for the highest quality and ethical standards in research. 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.
Amy Bourke-Waite
Communications Director, Open Research
Springer Nature
M 07375 089 729
amy.bourke-waite@biomedcentral.com
