Project promotes open peer review in Africa

AfricArXiv, Eider Africa, eLife, PREreview, and TCC Africa have collaborated to develop a peer-review training workshop, Open Peer Reviewers in Africa, tailored to the region-specific context of African researchers.

The organisations co-created tools and strategies for scholarly literature evaluation, and are now ready to pilot the new workshop series with researchers who would be interested in sharing their knowledge by training others, and helping co-develop the resources further.

The partners invite nominations for the pilot cohort of trainees for the Open Peer Reviewers in Africa workshop, who will then become the first trainers for researchers in their communities. The training will be delivered as four tutored online sessions carried out virtually and in real time. The project is looking to recruit 10 trainees in the fields of life sciences and medicine, as this project is funded by Wellcome to help improve diversity and inclusion in those domains. The Trainer-of-Trainers (ToT) model will create a multiplier effect, as trainees will be encouraged and empowered to mobilise, recruit and train colleagues in their respective scholarly communities.

Joy Owango, executive director at TCC Africa, emphasises that 'Including a Training-of-Trainers workshop is essential in providing a sustainable approach in building the capacity of future African peer reviewers'.

The partners are looking forward to receiving nominations from research organisations and communities where researchers are keen to learn more about open peer-review practices and to review science openly, especially using the emergent opportunities through digital platforms such as PREreview to review preprints. Please contact us on community@elifesciences.org if you experience any difficulties with the nomination form.

All nominations should be submitted via the online nomination form by March 28, 2022.