Peer review is an essential stage in the publication process, recognised for maintaining the high standard of scholarly communications.

Peer Review Week is a global event that brings together individuals, institutions, and publishers to discuss ways of improving the system: for better recognition and a more transparent and fair process for all.

The theme for this year’s event is ‘Diversity in Peer Review’.

Throughout the week the academic community hosts several events that contribute to the discussion. Visit the website for the full programme of activities.

Join the discussion on Twitter by following @PeerRevWeek, #PeerReviewWeek18 and #PeerRevDiversityInclusion

Introducing our Editors’ Viewpoints Series

In recognition of Peer Review Week 2018 we talked to a selection of Editors-in-Chief of journals published by EDP Sciences to find out what they think the key challenges are in promoting diversity and inclusion in peer review. Scroll down to listen to what they had to say, and send us any comments on Twitter.

Introducing our Editors

  • Daniel Suchet – Editor-in-Chief of Emergent Scientist, founded in 2016 in collaboration with the French Physical Society (SFP) and the first Open Access scientific journal designed to teach students about the publishing process, including peer-review. Emergent Scientist is innovative in several different ways throughout its process including a “dead-end” section where students can analyse inconclusive results, and the publication of the first proposal of each accepted paper alongside the reviewed version.
  • Annalisa Buffa – Joint Editor-in-Chief of ESAIM:M2AN, a subscription journal publishing in Mathematical Modelling, and Numerical Analysis. The Journal operates a single-blind peer review model, where the reviewers’ names are not disclosed to the author.
  • Virginie Serin – Joint Editor-in-Chief of the European Physical Journal: Applied Physics (EPJAP), a subscription journal dedicated to promoting progress in all fields of applied physics.
  • Anna Belehaki – Joint Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate, an Open Access journal that, in addition to papers on all aspects of space weather and space climate from a broad range of scientific and technical fields, publishes the results of research in education and outreach, to share experiences and innovations, to learn how to apply education research in the classroom and to communicate the results of interesting projects.

    • Interview Series

    Part One

    We asked our Editors for their thoughts on the biggest challenges for editors and publishers in encouraging diversity and inclusion amongst reviewers, and how things could be improved?

    Part Two

    Next, it was time to turn our Editors’ attention to researchers and the biggest challenges facing them. What more could researchers themselves do to encourage diversity and inclusion in peer review?

    Part Three

    The final part in this series asked our Editors for the advice they would give to anyone considering peer review.

    EDP Sciences supports the peer review community

    EDP Sciences believe that transparency in the peer review process will enhance the progression of the scholarly publishing community. To address this, 4open, published by EDP Sciences, has signed the ASAPbio open letter on the publication of peer review reports. Read more