Naming peer reviewers in JRSM

Abstract

The received wisdom is that peer review is a thankless task. Peer reviewers are overworked, unpaid, unacknowledged and generally unrewarded. Peer-review processes are not standardized, and each journal or grant review body has its way of deciding what should be approved for publication or funding, respectively. Peer review has also been a secretive process that was largely unstudied until the 1990s. The evidence on peer review in journals has improved in that time, although the central conclusion still holds: peer review is best for improving the quality of articles that editors decide to publish but it is not an objective decision-making process for selecting the best articles. A publication in a major journal is no guarantee of quality and will probably contain several errors, since peer review is poor at eradicating those errors or detecting research misconduct. Sensible journal editors have accepted this reality, and acknowledge the flaws in the system they supervise. Beyond this honest appraisal of peer review, journals can help by introducing open peer-reviewer processes whereby the identity of authors and peer reviewers are not hidden to each other. The research evidence suggests that open peer review does not affect the quality of decision-making at a journal but improves the quality of the conversation between the authors, reviewers and journals. The JRSM has an open peer-review process. The identity of peer reviewers, however, is still usually hidden from readers. Sometimes authors are kind enough to thank peer reviewers in their acknowledgements at the end of a paper. Some journals list peer reviewers without linking them to specific papers – a policy that the JRSM used to follow. A few other journals pay reviewers a small amount or offer them institutional or membership discounts, an existing JRSM benefit. Nonetheless, the reward that peer reviewers receive is paltry in relation to their effort and the contribution that a good peer reviewer can make to improve a paper. Many peer reviewers justify the effort as a necessary contribution to scientific discourse but also as a contribution to their personal development. Many are simply interested enough in the topic to lend their services. Scientific journals only thrive because of the passion of peer reviewers and the patience of readers. From 2010, the JRSM will be taking a bold step in improving the transparency of peer review. We will name peer reviewers on each peer-reviewed article that we publish. This journal does not have the resources to conduct a randomized trial before making this change as bigger journals are able to do. But the editorial team believes that it is the right decision in terms of openness. Any peer reviewers who do not wish to be named can simply decline to peer review the article they have been sent. We would welcome your views on this small but important development.