Transparency in Peer Review Project

There has been strong interest in transparency in peer review in recent years. Many journals have adopted transparent review models, of different kinds, and there has also been innovation in transparent review in the context of preprints. During the community discussion at the 2021 EASE conference many attendees raised comments and questions about transparency in peer review, specifically about how to introduce it to their journals and ensure high reviewer engagement and quality.

The PRC developed a project to provide editors with a toolkit on the topic of transparent peer review, the what, the why and the how.

The project will address the following aims:

• Increase awareness about transparent review models among editors and the broader EASE community, via the development of online resources and materials that can be employed for wide dissemination and running events (webinars, workshops) to disseminate the materials and foster engagement with the community around transparent peer review.
• Increase awareness about the current landscape and trends in the context of transparent peer review for preprints.
• Provide a go-to place for existing evidence on the use and outcomes of transparent peer review models.
• Develop practical resources for reviewers and editors who may wish to implement steps towards increasing transparency in their review activities.
• Develop partnerships with external groups with an interest in transparent peer review, to increase the visibility of EASE and potentially bring new members.

As part of the Project we aim to create or conduct:

• A survey on the current status of transparent review activities across EASE member journals
• A set of resources for different stakeholders (authors, reviewers, editors, readers) with designated DOIs and licensed under CC BY, hosted on the EASE website
• Templates, checklists, flowcharts and associated translations for implementation of transparent review, licensed under CC BY, with designated DOIs or hosted on the EASE website
• Materials for broad dissemination of the EASE resources, e.g. visuals, posters, infographics
• Events to raise the visibility of the resources developed and engage the EASE Community and beyond in discussions around transparent peer review – these would include workshops and webinars/panel discussions

Call for collaborators

We are now seeking a team of collaborators to develop, publish and promote the survey and analyse and publish the results under the leadership of PRC Chair, Mario Malički.

Applicants are asked to apply for only one role from the list below that they would be willing to undertake and be responsible for. We would welcome an early career researcher who has existing expertise in these topics or a willingness to learn.

• literature review and website search: to be completed in February and March 2024  (Description: you will be expected to conduct reproducible website and bibliographic searches and identify studies or publishers’ reports that reported on the types of peer review of journals, as well as similar surveys on the topic)
• survey design and methods: to be completed in March and April 2024 (Description: you will be expected to help design the survey questions and plan reminder email and follow-ups)
• survey (statistical) analysis: to be completed in June and July 2024 (Description: you will be expected to lead or co-lead the survey results analysis and produce figures and tables for a publication)
• protocol and manuscript writing: to be completed in March and July 2024 (Description: you will be expected to coordinate with the other members above, and produce the first draft of a protocol for preregistration and the results manuscript aimed for publication at the EASE journal)
• graphic design: to be completed in June and July 2024 (you will be expected to produce a graphical abstract, and infographics with the survey results to be used for wider dissemination, among others through the EASE website and social media channels).

Note: All collaborators are expected to review the protocol and the results publication in March and July 2024.

We are aiming for a diverse team of collaborators in regard to country/region representation, gender and ethnicity balance, so we kindly ask that you share with us your sociodemographic information when applying. Applicants will be notified about the selection in mid-February.

The collaborators will be selected in the order of tasks presented below, using a random number generator if more than one person applies for the same task. If initial random selection leads to more uniform collaborators, we will re-run the randomisation.

If you are interested in working with us on this topic, please complete the form by following the link below before 31 January 2024.

All collaborators will be co-authors on the resulting publication that will be submitted for evaluation and peer review to the EASE journal, European Science Editing.