Exploring Types of Peer Review
Celebrating Peer Review Week 2022’s theme, Research Integrity: Creating and supporting trust in research
People often say that transparency builds trust. Do you feel that the peer review process is transparent? In the spirit of the Peer Review Week 2022 theme, Research Integrity: Creating and supporting trust in research, let’s peel back the curtain and take a look at some common types of peer review.
Types of Peer Review:
Anonymous
Single Anonymized: Reviewers know the authors’ identities, but reviewer names are protected
Double Anonymized: Reviewer and author names are protected
Signed
Reviewers sign their comments. Authors receive reviewer names in the decision letter.
Collaborative
Reviewers collaborate and submit joint comments, or in some cases confer with authors and editors during the review process.
Portable
Reviewers are sought by an organization or journal and shared with any journals that require them later on. This means that if a manuscript is rejected, and the authors submit to a new journal, the reviewers or comments may follow the manuscript independent of the journal.
Published
Reviewer comments and/or names are published with the article or preprint.
Post-Publication
After a manuscript is posted, the community reviews the research in an open forum. Reviewer names are usually published with their comments.
The above types of peer review can be used independently or combined. Interested to learn more about the peer review process used at your favorite journal? This information should be listed on the journal website, likely under the ‘about’ section or the ‘editorial policies’ section. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Reach out to Research Communications Librarian, Sam Wilairat, for help.
Want to learn more about peer review? Consider attending a variety of online Peer Review Week events, September 19-23.
“Exploring Types of Peer Review” by Samantha Wilairat. CC BY. Derivative of “Types of Peer Review” by PLOS used under CC BY.
