Attitudes of Scientific Journal Editors Towards Open Peer Review

• See slides

Aim

This paper aims to present attitudes of editors of the Croatian scientific journals in the field of social sciences and humanities about changes in the peer review process and acceptance of open peer review as perceived by the editors (and / or their assistants).

Background

In spite of the ever-growing number of articles written in the last few decades about the necessity of change of peer review process, it seems as if peer review process is still not changing (quickly enough – as the current peer review system is considered bad) or that there is no wider interest among scientists and journal editors in recent changes introduced by different initiatives like open peer review. The proof for this statement is the inability of a potential author to find author guidelines of scientific journals around the world in substantial numbers offering open peer review or similar process significantly different from the mainstream and well established closed peer review process. In comparison to the older type (or types) of peer review process which is well researched and described as “a relatively optimised process, generally well-understood as a theory and a practice, and stable due to its widespread adoption and acceptance as a method” (1), open peer review is still less researched. One could argue that open peer review is not present in scientific community long enough to be researched thoroughly and, as a result, it is still not accepted as widely as the current peer review process. Consequentially, there are less published research articles on this topic that could be consulted by journal editors when thinking about implementing open peer review in their journal. Ross-Hellauer and Görögh (2) are optimistic about immediate future of open peer review and they state that open peer review “is moving into the mainstream, but it is often poorly understood and surveys of researcher attitudes show important barriers to implementation”. Same authors also point out that implementation of different innovations covered by the term open peer review requires guidelines to guide this implementation in order for it to be widely accepted. Now we know that we are missing such guidelines even if we (as journal editors) decide to implement it. Tennant (1), on the other hand is not optimistic and suggests that “uptake of new models of peer review appears to have been so low compared to what is often viewed as the ‘traditional’ method of peer review”. Bali (3) provided us with a realistic approach to acceptance of open peer review and she pointed out not speed of its implementation but potential of submitted manuscripts to be improved and published. For her open peer review is not about accepting poor works (as some are afraid) but it is about discovering potential of every work and its improvement to achieve publication. This potential remains undiscovered in cases of many scientific journals many countries sorting through many submitted manuscripts and applying traditional peer review. In Croatia there are very few researches and publications explaining what open peer review is. Stojanovski (4) wrote about open peer review and concluded that the Croatian scientific community is unprepared for its acceptance and that it is a surprise when taking into account the importance of peer review in scientific publishing. Vrana (5) wrote about editorial challenges in a small (Croatian) scientific community and found out that journal editors have difficulties in finding reviewers for the traditional close peer review. Open peer review is still no serious option in the Croatian scientific journals especially in small scientific communities in which everyone knows everyone else and because it is difficult to find potential reviewers. This research aims to find out whether this situation changed for the better.

Methods

The first part of the paper will be based on literature about peer review in general and open peer review in particular. The second part of the paper will be based on an online survey of editors of the Croatian scientific journals in the field of social sciences and humanities. The invitation for participation in the research was sent to e-mail address of journals of editors of scientific journals found on the portal of scientific journals “Hamster” in the fields of social sciences and humanities, their responses collected and processed.

Results and Discussion

The results showed differences in attitudes towards open peer review in different journals. Almost no journal applied open peer review, they also did not publish reviews on the journal’s Web site; very few of them published data supporting the article on the journal’s Web site; they allowed comments about published articles very infrequently; very few journals planned to make available some type of open public communication between journal, authors and reviewers. In spite of mostly non-existent experience in open peer review and open communication, the respondents showed positive attitudes towards values of open peer review. Finally, very few journals in this research was ready to implement open peer review. The research also showed that editors still have same problems as indicated in previous research done by Vrana (5).

Conclusion

There is a need for coordinated action of the experts in scientific community in Croatia who are researching this problem and help to journal editors to improve the current state of peer review and possibly to implement open peer review.

• Gwen FranckEIFL, Lithuania

  Gwen Franck is consultant and facilitator, interested in the ‘hands on’ aspects of Open Science such open access publishing, self-archiving… More →

• Victoria TsoukalaEuropean Commission

  Victoria Tsoukala works as a Policy Officer in the European Commission, DG RTD.G2: Open Science, in Secondment from her position at the… More →

• Adriaan van der WeelLeiden University

  Adriaan van der Weel is Bohn extraordinary professor of Modern Dutch Book History at the University of Leiden and lecturer in Book and… More →

• Sami SyrjämäkiFederation of Finnish Learned Societies

  Dr Sami Syrjämäki is the head of publications at the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. His expert work focuses on science policies… More →

• Thed van LeeuwenLeiden University

  Thed van Leeuwen is a senior researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University in the Netherlands. As… More →

• Andrei RostovtsevDissernet, Russia

  Prof Andrei Rostovtsev is a Russian physicist, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences. He graduated from the National Research Nuclear… More →

• Vanessa ProudmanSPARC Europe

  Vanessa Proudman is Director of SPARC Europe; she is working to make Open the default in Europe. Vanessa has 20 years’ international… More →

• Ana MarušićUniversity of Split

  Ana Marušić is Professor of Anatomy and Chair of the Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health at the University of Split School of… More →

• Alen VodopijevecRuđer Bošković Institute

  MSc Alen Vodopijevec obtained his diploma in 2003 at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and currently is… More →

• Anita Pavić Pintarić
• Damien VannsonThunken

  Builder at heart, driven by the satisfaction of turning shower thoughts and back-of-the-envelope plans into full-fledged, user-friendly… More →

• Danijel GudeljUniversity of Zagreb

  Danijel Gudelj is M.A. of sociology and croatology, graduated at Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb. Currently, he is a… More →

• Blaž RebernjakUniversity of Zagreb

  Blaž Rebernjak was born in Zagreb in 1983, where he finished primary and secondary schools. In 2007 he obtained his MA and in 2013 his PhD… More →

• Evgenia Arh
• Drahomira CuparUniversity of Zadar

  Drahomira Cupar, Phd, is an assistant professor at the University of Zadar, Department of Information Sciences. She obtained her PhD in… More →

• Elizabeth WagerSideview

  Elizabeth (Liz) Wager, PhD is a freelance consultant and trainer who has worked on six continents. She chaired the Committee on Publication… More →

• Filip HorvatUniversity of Rijeka

  Filip Horvat is a librarian at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Rijeka. He received his Master’s degree in Information… More →

• Goranka MitrovićNational and University Library in Zagreb

  Goranka Mitrović, senior librarian, works at the National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia (NUL) since 1993. Her research interest… More →

• Draženko CeljakUniversity Computing Centre

  MSc Draženko Celjak is the head of data services at SRCE – University of Zagreb University Computing Centre. He coordinates and leads the… More →

• Iva Melinščak ZlodiUniversity of Zagreb

  Iva Melinščak Zlodi works as an e-resources librarian at the Library of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences… More →

• Ivana MajerUniversity of Zagreb

  Ivana Majer graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb, and got her degree in Croatian… More →

• Irena KranjecUniversity of Zagreb

  Irena Kranjec works as a subject librarian for information sciences at the Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences… More →

• Jasminka MaravićCARNet Department for Education Support

  Jasminka Maravić is Project Manager at CARNet Department for Education Support. During her 14 years in CARNet she has been involved in… More →

• Krešimir ZauderUniversity of Zadar

  Krešimir Zauder was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1980. He graduated Information science and English language and literature in 2006. In 201… More →

• Jure TriglavCollaborative Knowledge Foundation

  Jure is the lead developer at the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation, where he develops the PubSweet framework and supports its community. More →

• Josipa Zetović
• Kristina RomićNational and University Library in Zagreb

  Kristina Romić works at the Acquisition Department, National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia. She graduated from the Faculty of… More →

• Ksenija Baždarić
• Ksenija Švenda RadeljakUniversity of Zagreb

  Ksenija Švenda Radeljak is employed at the Library of Department of Social Work at the Faculty of Law University in Zagreb. The areas of her… More →

• Linda SīleUniversity of Antwerp

  Linda Sīle is doctoral student at the University of Antwerp within the Centre for R&D Monitoring (ECOOM). My current work spans somewhat… More →

• Lovela Machala PoplašenUniversity of Zagreb

  Lovela Machala Poplašen is a head librarian at the Andrija Štampar Library, School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of… More →

• Ljiljana Poljak
• Luc BorutaThunken

  Ph.D. in computational linguistics, natural language processor, interested in linked data and linguistic diversity. In previous lives, Luc… More →

• Ljiljana Jertec MusapSRCE – University Computing Centre, University of Zagreb

  MSc Ljiljana Jertec is a librarian and computer specialist at SRCE – University of Zagreb University Computing Centre. She has a Master’s… More →

• Lucija VejmelkaUniversity of Zagreb

  Lucija Vejmelka is an assistant professor at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law, Department of Social Works, where she leads the… More →

• Marijana Briški Gudelj
• Marijana GlavicaUniversity of Zagreb

  MSc Marijana Glavica works as a systems librarian at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Library, where she… More →

• Marina Cvitanušić BrečićCroatian Agency for Science and Higher Education

  Marina Cvitanušić Brečić works at the Analytics and Statistics Department of the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE… More →

• Marina GrubišićCroatian Agency for Science and Higher Education

  Marina Grubišić is the head of the Analytics and Statistics Department of the Croatian Agency for Science and Higher Education (ASHE). She… More →

• Matko MarušićUniversity of Split

  Matko Marušić is Professor Emeritus at the University of Split, Split, Croatia. He was a Professor at Medical Schools (in Zagreb and Split… More →

• Nicolas Robinson-Garcia
• Neven Pintarić
• Paulin RibbeOpenEdition

  Paulin Ribbe is Project Manager for the OPERAS infrastructure at OpenEdition (France, Marseille - CNRS, AMU, EHESS, Avignon Univ.). He holds… More →

• Radovan VranaUniversity of Zagreb

  Born in Zagreb, Croatia. Primary and secondary education completed in Zagreb. Croatia. Graduated information sciences and the English… More →

• Rafaelly StavaleUniversity of Brasília

  Rafaelly Stavale is a current student of Nursing at Universidade de Brasília – UnB. She has recently completed the Principles and Practices… More →

• Olga KirillovaAssociation of Science Editors and Publishers (ASEP), Moscow, Russia

  Olga V. Kirillova, Candidate of Science (Engineering, 2004), the President of the Association of Science Editors and Publishers (ASEP, since… More →

• Pierre MounierOpenEdition

  Pierre Mounier is deputy director of OpenEdition , a comprehensive infrastructure based in France for open access publication and… More →

• Rodrigo CostasLeiden University

  Rodrigo Costas is an experienced researcher in the field of information science and bibliometrics. With a PhD in Library and Information… More →

• Tihana RubićUniversity of Zagreb

  Tihana Rubić is an assistant professor at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences… More →

• Vicko TomićUniversity of Split

  Vicko Tomić is a research assistant at the Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health at the University of Split School of Medicine… More →

• Vanessa FairhurstCrossref

  Vanessa Fairhurst joined Crossref in 2017 and is based at the Oxford office. As Community Outreach Manager, her role involves working… More →

• Želimir KurtanjekUniversity of Zagreb

  Želimir Kurtanjek is a retired professor of chemical engineering with an interest in biotechnology, biostatistics and big data analytics… More →

• Vlatka BožičevićUniversity of Zagreb

  Vlatka Božičević gratuated from Religious Pedagogy and Catechetics at the Catholic Faculty of Theology University of Zagreb and the… More →

• Željka Salopek
• Zoran VelagićUniversity of Osijek

  Zoran Velagić is a professor of book history and publishing studies at the University of Osijek, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences… More →