Publons as a source of high volume, poorly targeted reviewer requests: The need for better standards of practice by publishers

Abstract

It has become increasingly difficult for journal editors to find reviewers, while researchers are receiving increasing requests to be reviewers. Publons is used by some editors to identify potential reviewers, but may be a source of a high volume of sometimes poorly targeted requests. By systematically turning on and off his availability to be a reviewer in Publons, the author was able to show that it is a major source of the large number and sometimes inappropriate requests he received. Automatically generated reviewer suggestions need to be intelligently vetted by editors to avoid overwhelming potential reviewers. The academic publishing industry could usefully develop professional standards of good practice for reviewer selection.