In Review

A first of its kind service enabling prepublication sharing and peer review tracking.

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In a nutshell

Powered by Research Square and developed in partnership with Springer Nature, In Review opens up the peer review process. The first service of its kind, In Review provides authors with on-demand access to the status of their manuscript and tracks all major editorial events such as when reviewers have been invited, have agreed, and have submitted a report. By allowing authors to post their work early, In Review gives authors the opportunity to showcase their work to funders and others, and to engage the wider community for comment while their manuscript is under review. The result is earlier feedback, and the potential for more citations and collaboration opportunities.

Overview

Type of project

Project
Operated by

Springer Nature and Research Square
Listing status

Verified
Website

https://www.springernature.com/gp/authors/campaigns/in-review

Goals and intentions

Created in partnership with Research Square, In Review gives researchers the ability to share their work in a citeable way on submission to Springer Nature journals. This allows them to engage the community in discussion to help improve their article either through the public commenting tool or the Hypothes.is open annotation tool. We anticipate early sharing will help authors strengthen their manuscripts as well as spur collaboration opportunities. In Review also gives authors a way to track the status of their manuscript in real-time through the peer review process, including when reviewers have been invited, and reviewer reports have been received. This increased transparency has been well received by authors who have opted-in to the service since October 2018.

Areas of innovation

What is reviewed

Manuscript hosting

Yes

Types of outputs

Preprints

Video

Gallery

Format of review

Process

Review features

Notes

In Review is integrated with journals. The platform hosts information about the peer review timeline and status publicly. In addition, there is a private author dashboard which enables authors to read the peer reviews reports and decision letters. Authors can also use the dashboard to recommend reviewers.

One important feature is that manuscripts that are not accepted for publication at the journal will remain on the platform as preprints. This allows authors to continue to share and get feedback on their manuscript, but also give them the freedom to submit to other journals. The peer review history is only available privately through the author dashboard. As peer review becomes more open over time, full peer reviews may be made available publicly on the platform.
Eligible reviewers/editors

Anyone is able to comment on an article.
Tags or badges

Yes
Criteria for inclusion

All submissions undergo an Integrity Check at the journal it was submitted. This is denoted with a checkmark icon on the article page. A drop-down list shows the checks that have been completed.
Cost

0

Social Networks

Results

Number of scholarly outputs commented on

10,000+
Metrics

We track author uptake of the service (averages a 36% as at November 2019) and unique article views.
Results summary

As at November 2019, In Review is implemented for 125 Springer Nature journals. There are more than 10,000 manuscripts on the Research Square platform (including revised versions of manuscripts posted). has been rolled out on eight BMC journals. Springer Nature will be rolling this out across many more journals in 2020.

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