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family: Edmunds
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date: '2021-09-24T00:00:00+00:00'
date_updated: '2026-01-25T05:39:54+00:00'
guid: http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/?p=4096
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- alt: Identity in Peer Review
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- Peer Review Week
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summary: Embracing identity in Peer Review The COVID-19
pandemic has brought into stark focus is the importance of both a speedy dissemination
of research (something our participation in the C19 Rapid Review Consortium has
tried to tackle), and the need to be able to trust the validity of this information.
title: 'Peer Review Week 2021: Preprints Meet Open Peer Review'
url: https://wayback.archive-it.org/22098/2025-05-01T17:13:42Z/http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/identity-in-peer-review
version: v1
---
***Embracing identity in Peer Review***\
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into stark focus is the importance of
both a speedy dissemination of research (something [our participation in
the C19 Rapid Review
Consortium](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigascience-joins-c19rapidreview/)
has tried to tackle), and the need to be able to trust the validity of
this information. Meaning researchers need to tackle both the virus and
the
[\"infodemic\"](https://www.who.int/health-topics/infodemic#tab=tab_1)
of contrasting misinformation, rumour and conspiracy that has surrounded
it. This week is Peer Review Week, and is a timely reminder of how
crucial a role this plays in building confidence in research. We have
done outreach efforts on this topic before, including a Webinar in 2017.
This update has been adapted from a recent post [on the OUP
blog](https://blog.oup.com/2021/09/increasing-the-diversity-and-depth-of-the-peer-review-pool-through-embracing-identity/),
and we have also contributed a video to the [Peer Review Week
youtube](https://blog.oup.com/2021/09/increasing-the-diversity-and-depth-of-the-peer-review-pool-through-embracing-identity/)
channel.
We\'ve written about [Peer Review Week
before](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/peerrevwk17-update-peer-review-week-goes-transparent-and-interactive/),
and the theme this year (selected for the first time through an open
global survey) has been dedicated to \"Identity in Peer Review\". The
term identity --- who or what a person is --- can mean many things, but
personal identity is important in building trust through increasing
accountability in the research process. Additionally, knowing a
reviewer\'s identity widens scrutiny; increases transparency, and
provides context for authors to better understand why a reviewer
requests specific changes.
At *GigaScience*, since our launch in 2012 we have tried to increase
transparency and trust by throwing open the entire peer review process,
letting people really \"look under the hood\".
[We](https://doi.org/10.1186/2047-217X-2-1) [and
others](https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7175.23) have found this open
process to be generally more constructive, and previous studies on open
peer-review have also shown that quality and courteousness of reviews
increases and that there are very few negative effects. Open peer review
also opening up previously not possible opportunities in the peer
reviewing of controlled access data (see our [recent example
demonstrating
this](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/controlled-access-data/)). Open
peer review is not new: the journal *Food Structure* had \"Discussion
With The Reviewers\" in their articles [as far back as
1982](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/controlled-access-data/), and
the medical community in particular has [over 20 years of
experience](https://www.springernature.com/gp/advancing-discovery/springboard/blog/lessons-learned-from-open-peer-review--a-publisher-s-perspective/16123780)
in reviewing in this manner. While in the past there has been some
hesitancy about sharing a reviewer\'s identity, opening up peer review
is becoming the norm in a growing number of fields and journals,
including PLOS [joining the party last
year](https://plos.org/resource/open-peer-review/). Increasing
transparency in the research process through identity, is an extremely
timely weapon in fighting skepticism in the scientific process during
these turbulent times.
**Policy of Truth**\
Along with trust, reviewer identity is essential if --- as should be the
case --- we\'ve wanted want to credit and acknowledge the extremely hard
efforts of our peer reviewers. Being skilled and experienced enough to
judge others\' work shows your standing and service in your field, and
evidence of this can be useful for getting promotions, jobs, funding,
and [even in immigration
applications](https://publons.com/community/career). As an Open Science
publisher that promotes Open Access to all our textual content, in
addition to just adding reviewer names to our reports, we also publish
and license the reports under the same CC-BY license as the article.
This serves two purposes: it [makes these more
discoverable](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/peerrevwk15-news-crediting-amazing-reviewers-dois/)
via third-party platforms such as
[Publons](https://publons.com/journal/530/gigascience/) (who we\'ve been
[working with since
2014](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/gigascience-making-open-peer-review-more-open-qa-with-publons-co-founder-andrew-preston/))
and provides a citable published record of the reviewer\'s contribution
to the field.
**Get the Balance Right**\
Serving as reviewer is an important skill, and, while it can be a lot of
effort, being asked to be a reviewer is a clear indication that you are
perceived by journal editors as a peer and expert in your field. It is
particularly important to early career researchers to be involved in
this process, as they are not only the next generation of reviewers, but
are the key drivers and people that will help broaden the diversity and
experience of views in academia. Crossing disciplines and reducing
preconceptions and bias in the whole process of assessing research is
essential. Thus, it is extremely important to credit and recognize
students and junior researchers who often co-review papers with their
supervisors and PIs. To make this possible, they need to be named and
co-sign the reports. At *GigaScience* we try our best to ensure that
their details are listed in the metadata of the [DOIs that we mint for
every peer
review](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/peerrevwk17-update-peer-review-week-goes-transparent-and-interactive/),
which will enable this credit to be carried over to their online Publons
and ORCID profiles.
**Let me Take You on a TRiP**\
Peer review, or the lack of it, for preprints, has become a big topic of
discussion during the pandemic. Preprints serve as the best way to
rapidly release scientific information, and, encouragingly, we have seen
an explosion in the [use of bioRxiv and
medRxiv](https://connect.biorxiv.org/relate/content/181), providing a
mechanism to share crucial information relating to the COVID-19
outbreak. While this has sped up the flow of crucial information, there
have been worries about the reliability of research that hasn\'t yet
been peer-reviewed. A great boost in confidence, however has been the
growth of preprint reviews where, typically, reviewers are identified.
BioRxiv has taken the presence of reviews in their server to the next
level with their new [\"Transparent Review in Peer-review\" or TRiP
workflow](https://www.cshl.edu/transparent-review-in-preprints/) that
enables journals and a growing ecosystem of peer review services (for
example [Peer Community In](https://peercommunityin.org/), of which we
have also endorsed as a [\"friendly
journal\"](https://peercommunityin.org/pci-friendly-journals/)), to post
peer reviews alongside the preprints of submitted manuscripts. Being big
fans of both preprints and open peer review, and previously
experimenting in similar [pilot schemes such as
Preprint.Space](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/preprintspace/),
becoming part of this new effort was an easy sell for us at GigaScience
Press. We are happy to announce that *GigaScience* and *GigaByte* have
joined journals such as eLife and EMBO journal in implementing it (see
the [linked
papers](https://connect.biorxiv.org/eval/?platform=x6WjqQay&subject=all)
and click the TRiP reviews tab to see linked open reviews).
The growth of preprint peer reviews not only helps authors and readers,
but also, with the identity of the reviewers included, it provides a
wider platform for journals to find potential reviewers and editorial
board members. [ASAPbio](https://asapbio.org/) has taken a proactive
step in making this happen by launching a pilot Preprint Reviewer
Recruitment Network (PPRN) to enable willing researchers to share
preprint feedback as work samples for review by participating journals.
This is an excellent way to help early career researchers break into
reviewing or editing roles. Both *GigaScience* and *GigaByte* are among
the initial participating journals, and we would encourage interested
potential reviewers to [sign up
here](https://asapbio.org/preprint-reviewer-recruitment-network) if they
are interested in joining this important effort. We are already using
this network, and will be happy to be able to identify more researchers
to be involved in our publishing activities
This Peer Review Week, think about boosting transparency and trust in
peer review by embracing your identity and taking credit for your
contributions towards assessing the quality of research. Carry out
preprint reviews and help journals [participating in
TRiP](https://www.science.org/news/2019/10/bid-boost-transparency-biorxiv-begins-posting-peer-reviews-next-preprints),
and also [sign up for the
PPRN](https://asapbio.org/preprint-reviewer-recruitment-network) to more
widely disseminate preprint feedback.
The post [Peer Review Week 2021: Preprints Meet Open Peer
Review](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/identity-in-peer-review/){rel="nofollow"}
appeared first on
[GigaBlog](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog){rel="nofollow"}.
