Interactive Public Peer Review

In the access review, editors need to assess whether a manuscript is within the scope of the journal, whether it meets basic scientific quality, and whether it contributes something new to the respective field. After approval of a manuscript for Interactive Public Peer Review, it is posted as a discussion paper (preprint) in the journal’s discussion forum and is citable through a DOI. During the discussion phase different parties can engage in an iterative and developmental reflective process. In the interactive discussion, comments are posted by designated referees (anonymous or named). In addition, all interested members of the scientific community (named) can contribute as well. All participants are encouraged to stimulate further debate rather than simply preserve their position. The overall goal is to enhance the manuscript and thereby maximize the impact of the article. Usually, every discussion paper receives at least two comments by the referees, which are requested by the editor. Authors are encouraged to participate actively by posting author comments as a direct reply to referee comments and short comments from the scientific community. After the end of the open discussion, authors need to publish a response to all comments in case they have not done so during the discussion phase. In journals with post-discussion editor decision, the editor – based on the authors’ responses – either invites the authors to submit a revised manuscript or directly rejects the manuscript. If necessary the editor may also consult referees as is done during traditional peer review. In journals without post-discussion editor decision, authors need to submit their revised manuscript 4 to 8 weeks after the discussion. Taking the access peer review and interactive public discussion into account, the editor either directly accepts/rejects the revised manuscript for publication in the journal or consults referees again. If needed, revisions may be requested during peer-review completion until a final decision about acceptance/rejection is reached.

At least two referees, nominated by the editor, review the discussion paper. In addition, the scientific community is invited to join the interactive public discussion prior to publication. The following types of interactive comments can be submitted for instant non-peer-reviewed appearance alongside the discussion paper: a) Short comments (SCs) can be posted by any registered member of the scientific community (free online registration). Such comments are posted under the name of the person commenting. b) Referee comments (RCs) can only be posted by the referees peer-reviewing the discussion paper. Referees can choose to stay anonymous or to disclose their name. c) Editor comments (ECs) can only be posted by the editor handling the review process of the respective discussion paper. d) Author comments (ACs) can only be posted by the contact author of the discussion paper on behalf of all co-authors. All interactive comments are fully citable, paginated, and archived. All comments receive DOIs.

Journals have to select whether they want to apply the Interactive Public Peer Review or not. Hence, if a journal opts for it, all manuscripts submitted to this journal will follow this process.

0

If a paper is accepted after Interactive Public Peer Review, the article processing charges of the respective journal apply.

10,000+

We provide the article level metrics (downloads, views), impact (citations), saves (bookmarks), and discussion information (social media) for discussion papers as well as final revised papers.

Interactive Public Peer Review has been successfully applied since 2001. Since then, the basic concept has remained unchanged even though additional features have been implemented (accelerated access review, post-discussion editor decision, post-discussion report publication, no more typesetting of the discussion papers). At the moment, 20 out of 42 journals we publish apply this peer-review process. Several journals have switched from applying a traditional peer review to the Interactive Public Peer Review.