Can editorial peer review survive in a digital environment?

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Nickolas Haynes
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1 Can editorial peer review survive in a digital environment? Ann C. Weller University of Illinois at Chicago ACS, Division of Chemical Information August 22, 2004 acw@uic.edu

2 Overview Traditional models of peer review Electronic publishing New peer review models in an electric environment Pre-print repositories Open access journals Unpublished data

3 Traditional peer review Editor sends the manuscripts to two or three reviewers. Reviewers recommend to accept, accept with revisions, or reject. Editor decides if they will accept the recommendation of the reviewers.

4 Traditional peer review If reviewers disagree, Send the manuscript for more review Editor adjudicates and decides to accept or reject. If a manuscript is rejected Author can submit it to another journal.

5 Biochemistry ACS Instructions to authors: Editorial Organization and Reviewing Process

6 Electronic environment Electronic journals Electronic process for peer review Different models for peer review in electronic environment

7 Online Journal of Current Clinical Began in 1991 Trials First: peer reviewed health sciences online journal First: to be indexed in Index Medicus, now PubMed Ended in 1996 Today - no easy access to the 52 articles

8 Peer reviewed e-journals e in PubMed: 2004 ~ 195 titles ~

9 CAS electronic journals ~ 167 titles ~

10 Electronic publishing: changes in the Preprint archives Open access: peer review process SPARC PubMed Central BioMed Central PLoS Chemistry example

11 Physics e-print e archives Began for High Energy Physics 1991 For a subcommunity of 200 physicists In some fields of physics, open (i.e. unrefereed) distribution of research can work well and has advantages for researchers both in developed and undeveloped countries. ~ P. Ginsparg 1996

12 Physics archives submissions June 2004

13 Chemistry Preprints 835 articles

14 Chemistry Pre-Prints Prints Chemists have been reluctant to produce pre- print files because they could be viewed as unallowable for research assessment or tenure. ~ Warr, Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences,, 2003 Only 6% of editors of chemistry journals allow publication of articles that have previously appeared in electronic pre-print print files ~ Brown, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology,, 2003

15 SPARC SPARC,, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an alliance of universities, research libraries, and organizations built as a constructive response to marketing issues in scholarly publishing.

16 Directory of Open Access Journals Covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. In June, 2004 there were 1134 journals in the directory. Currently 297 journals are searchable on article level with over 50,000 articles searchable

17 Directory of Open Access Journals Chemistry Analytical Chemistry (1 journal) Chemical Engineering (5 journals) Chemistry (General) (30 journals) Inorganic Chemistry (1 journal) Organic Chemistry (1 journal)

18 SPARC and NIH SPARC and several major U.S. library organizations sent a letter in January 2004 to NIH Director Dr. Zerhouni urging NIH to support publishing in open access journals as part of their research grants.

19 Research funds and open access Before congress: a recommendation that NIH implement a policy to make research articles available to the public free of charge. This would apply to NIH-federally funded research as of FY 2005 and would include the authors' final manuscripts including supplemental materials. The current plan is to use PubMed Central.

21 PubMed Central A digital archive of life sciences journals, developed and managed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)

22 PubMed Central PubMed Central does not include any unreviewed research or pre-print print articles. Participating journals must include all its peer-reviewed reviewed primary research articles.

23 BioMed Central Rapid peer review: Online peer review process means an initial decision within six weeks. BMC Biochemistry: Submitted articles: reviewed by two experts with the aim of reaching a first decision as soon as possible. Reviewers do not have to sign their reports, but are welcome to.

24 BioMed Central: authors feedback

25 BioMed Central new model

26 BioMed Central new model Authors Authors pay: $525 per article Large Large institution pay: $6,448 Reviews Reviews published

27 PLoS

28 PLoS Papers published in these journals are peer reviewed using a uniquely consultative process between editors and experts in their field, and are produced to the highest editorial and production standards. Under the open access model, PLoS makes all published works immediately available online, with no charges for access and no restrictions on subsequent redistribution or use.

29 PLoS Open Access NY Times June 26, 2004

30 Chemistry open access

31 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Two-stage process: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions (ACPD) Publication in, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP)

32 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 1. Submission of Original Manuscript 2. Access Peer-Review (~2 weeks) 3. Authors Technical Corrections (~2 weeks) 4. Publication of Discussion Paper in ACPD 5. Open Discussion (8 weeks) 6. Final Response. Authors given weeks 7. Submission of Revised Manuscript 8. Peer-Review Completion

33 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics After peer-review review and interactive public discussion, the editor either directly accepts/rejects 9.Publication of Final Revised Paper in ACP. (original paper, interactive comments, final revised paper) are permanently archived and remain accessible to the open public via internet, CD- ROM and print copies of both ACPD and ACP.

34 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

35 New Models: Unpublished, unpeer reviewed data Recent news reports of pharmaceutical companies making data available on the Web: GlaxoSmithKlein, the manufacturer of the antidepressant Paxil Merck, registry of drug trials

36 New models: unpublished drug data on Web NPR June 15, 2004

37 New models: unpublished drug data on Web New York Times June 18, 2004

38 New Models What is new? Speed Non-print formats Easy Access New pricing structures More data More non-peer peer-reviewed reviewed data Unlimited space for journals

39 New Models For peer review: Open peer review Open online discussions before final version Consultative peer review Publication of several versions of a manuscript

40 New Models What s s not new? Science Scholarship Different models work for different disciplines Structure of scientific articles

41 Scientific articles After publishing an update of an article on smoking habits of doctors written 50 years ago: The overriding impression is that little has changed in the last 50 years Richard Smith, Editor BMJ, June 26, 2004

42 Peer review in an electronic environment Correct science Speed and space Big issues: Cost there is a cost to Open Access Permanence

43 Some research questions Is there a difference in quality or uniqueness of what gets published in only e-journals e and what gets published in traditional journals? Does making reviewers comments available to readers change the quality of a review? What are citation patterns of e-only e journals?

44 Conclusions Electronic transmissions can speed process News models being tried More information about the peer review process Peer review by experts is essential Undergoing a time of profound changes to the publication process

45 Peer review is essential Despite its limitations, we need it. It is all we have, and it is hard to imagine how we could get along without it. Arnold S. Relman,, past editor, New England Journal of Medicine,, 1990

46 Electronic journals and peer review: URLs SPARC : Directory of Open Access Journals: Automated e-print e archives: Chemistry Preprint Server: The Scientists scientist.com/yr2000/sep/amber_p1_ html PubMed Central: BioMed Central: NPR: All things considered:

PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Access, and Public Access Sept 9, 2009

PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Access, and Public Access Sept 9, 2009 David Gillikin Chief, Bibliographic Service Division National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health Department of Health