My reflections on Peer Review Week 2022
Wow! What a week! This year’s Peer Review Week has been a truly educational, enlightening and inspiring week. As a member of the steering committee, it has been wonderful to see our community coming together to celebrate the essential role of peer review in maintaining research quality.
The breadth and variety of activities on offer this year meant there was something for everyone to engage with. From blog posts to webinars, podcasts to live AMAs, we had it all. And the range of organisations and individuals who got involved is testament to the importance of peer review to the scholarly ecosystem, and shows just how effectively Peer Review Week is at delivering on its aims.
This year’s theme focussed on “Research Integrity: Creating and supporting trust in research”, and in her opening blog post, Danielle Padula, spoke about the numerous layers to that theme. This year’s events and activities really reflected those different strands and the many ways that peer review supports trust in research.
Some of my personal highlights
There has been so much activity and so many great events that I can’t possibly cover them all in detail. I’ve picked out just a few examples to give you a flavour of the week, and to entice you to take a deeper dive.
Webinars
- COPE’s webinar on “Practical steps for managing paper mills” really lived up to its name, with speakers Renee Hoch (PLOS) and Jigisha Patel (Jigisha Patel Research Integrity Limited) sharing tips on identifying and investigating suspect papers. We also heard from Sarah Elaine Eaton (editor-in-chief of the International Journal for Educational Integrity) about the parallels between paper mills and so-called “contract cheating” in higher education. And Joris van Rossum (STM’s Director of Research Integrity) provided an overview of the important collaborative effort that is the STM Integrity Hub.
- PLOS hosted a panel discussion “Building Trust in Science Communication: The role of journals and journalists, pre- and post-publication” in which an expert panel, including Ivan Oransky of Retraction Watch, had a wide-ranging conversation about science journalism and publication ethics, including the public’s understanding of science.
Resources
- EASE peer review infographics are fun and colourful infographics, which cover the topics: selecting reviewers, how to review, and some do’s and don’ts for being a good reviewer.
- Peer Review: the nuts and bolts 2 from Sense About Science is a great guide to the peer review process aimed at early career researchers.
- An updated version of Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing was released by COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME, setting out clear ground rules for scholarly publishers to adhere to.
Blogs
- Chris Graf, Research Integrity Director for Springer Nature, gives us reasons to be cheerful about research integrity and peer review in his Scholarly Kitchen article.
- The UK’s national funding agency, UKRI, announced it is undertaking a review of peer review to inform its future processes.
It’s not too late to participate
Many of the live webinars and panel discussions were recorded so please do browse the list of activities on the Peer Review Week site, and catch up on any you missed. I know I will be doing that! You can also browse #PeerReviewWeek22 on Twitter, to see the great conversations about, and celebrations of, peer review and its role in research integrity.
See you next year!
As this year’s Peer Review Week draws to a close, the steering committee will soon be turning their attention to next year – new volunteers are always welcome, so if you would like to get involved in the committee drop us a line at contactprweek@gmail.com.
Attribution: This post was written by Nicola Nugent, Publishing Manager, Quality & Ethics at Royal Society of Chemistry
About the author: Dr Nicola Nugent is Publishing Manager, Quality & Ethics at the Royal Society of Chemistry, where she is the strategic lead for quality and impact across journals and books. She has responsibility for the journals peer review strategy, as well as publication ethics, and inclusion & diversity in publishing. She is a member of the Peer Review Week steering panel.
Peer Review Week 