(20 Sep 2022) Open peer review, also known as transparent peer review, refers to the practice of publishing review reports and sometimes also the identities of reviewers. In recent years, there has been a large growth in the adoption of open peer review. The transparency offered by open peer review ensures that the quality of peer review, and also the quality of the paper under review, is made visible for readers of the paper. This enables anyone who considers building upon the paper to develop an understanding of strengths and weaknesses of the research.
Open and transparent peer review is not new. Publishers like Journal of Medical Internet Research, British Medical Journal, and BMC have put the concept into practice for over 20 years. While many publishers have continued to innovate in this area since then, widescale and cross-disciplinary adoption has been lagging. This is often due to real and perceived concerns about researcher attitudes towards the practice. There is also the complexities of building on top of existing journal technologies and workflows.
Gali Halevi, Director at the Institute for Scientific Information, talks more about how open peer review evolves, and how Clarivate is moving towards its goal here.
