Peer Reviewer Recognition: SAGE Takes a Minority Interest in Publons
From SAGE:
SAGE Publishing today announces that it has led an investment round for a minority stake in Publons with additional participation by existing investors.
Known for its mission to use peer review to speed up science, Publons will remain completely independent and publisher-neutral following this investment, allowing for continued participation from other parties.
Established in 2013, Publons partners with publishers and other institutions to formally recognize the value of reviews and to give credit to reviewers by treating reviews as a measureable research output. Their website provides a forum to learn more about researchers and research through the lens of both pre- and post-publication peer review. This investment will provide Publons with the resources to expand their team with a focus on improving the product, integrating with more journals, and building a sustainable business.
The investment follows SAGE’s 2014 investment in PeerJ, in line with SAGE’s intent to continue to invest in the space.
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With this announcement, David [McCune], SAGE Publishing shareholder and Deputy Executive Chairman SAGE Publishing will become a member of the Publons board with no operational control or involvement, bringing with him 30+ years of experience in the publishing industry.
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Publons is continuously expanding to include new partnerships with journals, publishers, and third party services. SAGE and Publons entered a pilot partnership in May of 2015, allowing SAGE to formally give credit to the reviewers of its journals by automatically adding their work to Publons profiles.
Publons has grown to fully integrate with more than 100 journals and has reviews from more than 10,000 journals. In 2015, reviewers added approximately 1% of the world’s reviews to Publons, which now possesses more than a quarter of a million peer reviews covering most journals and fields.
Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), News, Profiles, Publishing

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.