Speaker
Mr
Jelte M. Wicherts
(Tilburg Univ.)
Description
The peer review system is a standard control mechanism in scholarly publishing. Despite its centrality in science, peer-review typically takes place behind closed curtains. For both established and Open Access journals this obscurity may give room to substandard peer-reviews. I contend that transparency concerning the peer-review process at academic journals can be viewed as an indicator of the quality of the peer review. I present results of three studies of the validity and reliability of a straightforward online assessment of transparency of the peer review process at (OA) journals. The assessment can be readily used by different stakeholders (publishers, researchers, librarians, and funders) and entails a list of criteria for transparency concerning the peer review process (e.g., clarity on scope of the journal, rejection rates, decision makers, criteria used by reviewers, publication ethics). Results show good validity and sufficient reliability to use the tool to determine which journals meet common standards of transparent peer-review.
