Definitions

The top four definitions that will help you tackle the most common misconceptions in scientific publishing.

 

Peer Review

Peer Review

Peer review is the process by which a piece of scientific research is assessed by others —a researcher’s fellow peers— who are suitably qualified and able to judge the piece of work under review in terms of novelty, soundness and significance.

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Open Peer Review (OPR)

Open Peer Review (OPR)

OPR – although often narrowly defined as peer review where author/reviewer identities are disclosed to one another (see example) – is best understood as an umbrella term for a number of overlapping ways that peer review models can be adapted in line with the aims of Open Science, including making reviewer and author identities open, publishing review reports and enabling greater participation in the peer review process. The full list of traits is:

  • Open identities: Authors and reviewers are aware of each other’s identity
  • Open reports: Review reports are published alongside the relevant article.
  • Open participation: The wider community are able to contribute to the review process.
  • Open interaction: Direct reciprocal discussion between author(s) and reviewers, and/or between reviewers, is allowed and encouraged.
  • Open pre-review manuscripts: Manuscripts are made immediately available (e.g., via pre-print servers like arXiv) in advance of any formal peer review procedures.
  • Open final-version commenting: Review or commenting on final “version of record” publications.
  • Open platforms (“decoupled review”): Review is facilitated by a different organizational entity than the venue of publication.

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Peers

Peers

The “peer” in peer review is gaining a new meaning moving away from the notion of an accredited colleague to a participant in the review process. The peer here becomes a peer in this sense through the quality of his/her participation. Contributing to the ongoing review, the peer becomes involved in a networked knowledge exchange where not the credentials of the participants considered to be the main asset, but the expertise and trustworthiness one brings to the discussion.

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Open Science

Open Science

Open Science is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods.

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