Select Crowd Review

A selected crowd of experts review manuscripts interactively

In a nutshell

A selection of about 70-100 experts, who are exclusive members of the crowd, receive a link to the manuscript and can comment on it anonymously via a secure only platform (Filestage). Only the editor knows who the reviewers are while monitoring the process.

Each reviewer decides if he or she has time and expertise to comment on the respective article. Participating reviewers see each other's comments and can discuss the research featured in the paper to improve the manuscript further. They can respond, interact, and enhance it in parallel.

After 48–72 hours (on average) the review period ends, and the manuscript is taken off the platform. In the next step, the editor evaluates the comments of the reviewers, decides about accepting (with or without revision) or rejecting the article and sends the feedback of the crowd to the author for consideration and implementation.

Goals and intentions

In the first year after the introduction of Select Crowd Review for SYNLETT, experience has proved that the innovative process delivers substantive feedback to the authors, with the same or higher quality than classical peer review does, in only a few days. This allows editors to decide about the acceptance of a manuscript much faster and therefore shortens the time from submission to publication.

We will continue to improve Select Crowd Review together with editors, authors, and reviewers. This innovative process will not just benefit SYNLETT and SynOpen, but potentially the wider scientific community.

Project status

Active

Types of outputs

Privately shared manuscripts

Review process

Review requested by

Authors
Reviewer selected by

Editor, service, or community
Public interaction

No
Author response

Yes
Decision

Binary decision

Review policy

Review coverage

Complete paper
Reviewer identity known to

Editor or service
Competing interests

Checked

Social Networks

Video

Review features

Manuscript hosting

Yes
Review of code or data

Yes
Eligible reviewers/editors

Reviewers (members of the 'crowd') are selected by a member of the editorial board of the journal, based upon their expertise, motivation, and experience in reviewing and in synthetic organic chemistry.
Tags or badges

No

Transparency

Single blind

Results

Number of scholarly outputs commented on

100-1,000
Results URL

https://www.nature.com/news/crowd-based-peer-review-can-be-good-and-fast-1.22072

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