New Research Article: “Peer Review and Preprint Policies are Unclear at Most Major Journals” (Preprint)

The following research article (preprint) was posted on bioRxiv on January 30, 2020.

Title

Peer Review and Preprint Policies are Unclear at Most Major Journals

Authors

Thomas Klebel
Graz University of Technology

Stefan Reichmann
Graz University of Technology

Jessica Polka
ASAPbio

Gary McDowell
Lightoller

Naomi Penfold
ASAPbio

SamanthaHindle
bioRxiv

Tony Ross-Hellauer
Graz University of Technology

Source

via bioRxiv
DOI: 10.1101/2020.01.24.918995

Abstract

Clear and findable publishing policies are important for authors to choose appropriate journals for publication. We investigated the clarity of policies of 171 major academic journals across disciplines regarding peer review and preprinting. 31.6% of journals surveyed do not provide information on the type of peer review they use. Information on whether preprints can be posted or not is unclear in 39.2% of journals. 58.5% of journals offer no clear information on whether reviewer identities are revealed to authors. Around 75% of journals have no clear policy on coreviewing, citation of preprints, and publication of reviewer identities. Information regarding practices of Open Peer Review is even more scarce, with <20% of journals providing clear information. Having found a lack of clear information, we conclude by examining the implications this has for researchers (especially early career) and the spread of open research practices.

Direct to Full Text Article (Preprint)
26 pages; PDF.

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