Open peer review

Promoting transparency in open science

Bibliographic Data

ID21442922
AuthorsDietmar Wolfram (0000-0002-4991-276X, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, corresponding author), Peiling Wang (0000-0003-4202-7570, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, corresponding author), Adam Hembree (University of Tennessee at Knoxville, corresponding author), Hyoungjoo Park (0000-0003-4271-1196, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume125
Issue2
Pages1033-1051
Publication date2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScientometrics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0138-9130 • E-ISSN: 1588-2861
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11192-020-03488-4
OpenAlexW3029733514
LanguageEN
Citations received22
References cited29

Open peer review (OPR), where review reports and reviewers’ identities are published alongside the articles, represents one of the last aspects of the open science movement to be widely embraced, although its adoption has been growing since the turn of the century. This study provides the first comprehensive investigation of OPR adoption, its early adopters and the implementation approaches used. Current bibliographic databases do not systematically index OPR journals, nor do the OPR journals clearly state their policies on open identities and open reports. Using various methods, we identified 617 OPR journals that published at least one article with open identities or open reports as of 2019 and analyzed their wide-ranging implementations to derive emerging OPR practices. The findings suggest that: (1) there has been a steady growth in OPR adoption since 2001, when 38 journals initially adopted OPR, with more rapid growth since 2017; (2) OPR adoption is most prevalent in medical and scientific disciplines (79.9%); (3) five publishers are responsible for 81% of the identified OPR journals; (4) early adopter publishers have implemented OPR in different ways, resulting in different levels of transparency. Across the variations in OPR implementations, two important factors define the degree of transparency: open identities and open reports. Open identities may include reviewer names and affiliation as well as credentials; open reports may include timestamped review histories consisting of referee reports and author rebuttals or a letter from the editor integrating reviewers’ comments. When and where open reports can be accessed are also important factors indicating the OPR transparency level. Publishers of optional OPR journals should add metric data in their annual status reports

Computer security · Early adopter · Implementation · Library science · Open data · Open Science · Open source · Peer review · Political science · Sociology · Statistics · Transparency (behavior) · World Wide Web · Academic Publishing and Open Access · Computer Science · Law · Mathematics · Meta-analysis and systematic reviews · scientometrics and bibliometrics research

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access