Palgrave Macmillan launches open peer-review trial for books

At the end of January, Palgrave Macmillan launched an open and transparent peer-review trial for academic books in the humanities and social sciences.
 
The trial, which is live at www.palgraveopenreview.com, is running for six weeks and is said to be the first open peer-review trial for book proposals. Academics from all disciplines, in all locations and at all stages in their career are encouraged to take part, says the publisher.
 
The trial includes seven monograph proposals, one edited collection, and one proposal for a Palgrave Pivot, which is the mid-length e-book format from Palgrave Macmillan.
 
Carrie Calder, director of market development explained: ‘Rigorous peer review is at the heart of academic publishing. However, “traditional” peer review, while effective in many ways, has some limitations. We see this experiment as an opportunity to contribute to the emerging debate on opening up the closed peer-review system, and increasing transparency in academic publishing.’