What is Open Peer Review?

Open Peer Review is a scholarly review mechanism that involves the disclosure of the reviewer and author’s identity to one another, publishing review reports openly, and thus increasing the participation of other self-selected reviewers to comment on the article. It is one of the most used terms and a major pillar of Open Science that aims to check out the article’s authenticity and quality before publication. 

 

It generally involves the online posting of the complete pre-publication history of the article (including the signed reviews, previous versions, etc.) and leaving it there for an open discussion. The reviewers then provide feedback on the posted work (journal article, grant application, or other work) to help the author with the text improvement. Reviewers evaluate the text based on whether the research methods align with the basic scientific protocols. 

 

It is one of the best ways to maintain the credibility of content and honor of science by filtering out fake or invalid quality articles. The value enhancement of the content is achieved through the process, and hence, it is preferred by every publisher.

 

Open Peer Review Vs. Traditional Peer Review – What’s the Difference?  

As already discussed, Open Peer Review is a mechanism revealing the identities of the author and reviewer to each other and leaving the content posted online for an open discussion. However, it is different from the traditional peer review is usually single or double-blind, and involves the anonymity of either the reviewer or the author or both. 

 

Thus, open peer review is a valuable revision to traditional peer reviewers involving anonymity and revealing both identities to each other, promoting trust among both parties and enhancing the reliability of the process throughout. 

 

Why Does Open Peer Review Get Fame?

The most apparent reason why open peer review got much fame is that it involves identity disclosure in the process. It evolves the scholarly ecosystem to work as a whole, despite various roles played by individuals coming forward as the participants. This is mainly due to the revealing of the identities among the individuals. It brings forth how the distinct identities of various participants add to the diversity and knowledge of the published content. 

 

This makes the process highly authentic and reliable. By involving multiple personal and social identities, the process helps the scholarly community to foster progressive, diverse, ethical, trustworthy, and equitable peer-reviewing practices. 

 

The Open Peer Review method supports the best contribution in developing the article’s transparency, coordination, and review after its publication. Furthermore, the process of open peer review continuously accepts the evolving techniques with new ways and exchanges the old practices for the new ones through the experiment. 

 

Not leaving behind its prime purpose of enhancing the reader’s confidence that the article is original and based on reality. Open Peer Review also got fame among an enormous number of publishers. 



Editor’s Point of View

Some editors say that it is the best way to extract the content’s flaws in the paper. It reveals whether the data and conclusion are valid or not. Furthermore, a reader can easily understand your content in the article and share its recommendations in the comment section.

 

Why Is It Best?

Open peer review is best because it helps to improve the content and increase the readability process. This increases the quality of the published paper that motivates the writer to represent the quality and original work. It is the second way to accelerate the efforts to make the right content that helps convey the direct message to the audience. 

 

However, up to 90% of publishers consider this method a helping hand. The main reason for its commitment is that it helps to deliver the excellent aspect of any research paper or article. You cannot convey the wrong things to people through your writing. Furthermore, publishing the right research paper or article is the writer’s duty, which is filtered through open peer review. 

 

Critic’s Beliefs

The process of peer review is not free from criticism as well. Multiple studies and researches show that some articles are published elsewhere although containing inaccurate information despite going through open peer review. However, the critics think it is due to human error, which isn’t a significant reason to abandon the entire process. 

 

Benefits
  • It helps to reduce the cycle of repeating the review content with the help of changeable peer review. 
  • It provides the best practical teaching ways for peer reviewers. 
  • The reviewer can easily recognize the participation of different people. 

 

Flaws of Open Peer Review

According to some editors, there is an issue with the open peer review that can lead you to deep thoughts and force you to bring new facts. Many referees are willing to stick with more comments with technical concerns. 

 

On the other side, some of the referees also put their point of view that the method of forced openness can become the expression of recommendation. Moreover, this process can turn the main topic into a complicated situation. Therefore, most editors prioritize sticking with the original review to reduce the stress or workload. The open peer review journals also experience a tough review process that makes the procedure more complicated for the editors. 

 

References
  1. Hagger, M. S. (2013). What reviewers want: how to make your article more appealing to peer reviewers. Health Psychology Review, 7(sup1), S1–S7. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2013.782963
  2. Pros and cons of open peer review. (1999). Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/nn0399_197?error=cookies_not_supported&code=3afd46b8-bcd0-4a69-82f8-3272190302f9
  3. Wicherts, J. M. (2016). Peer Review Quality and Transparency of the Peer-Review Process in Open Access and Subscription Journals. PLOS ONE, 11(1), e0147913. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147913