Transparent peer review pilot earns strong support from researchers
The European Journal of Higher Education (EJHE) has released the results of a two-year pilot on transparent peer review (TPR), a process that is typically kept confidential. A new survey reveals that both authors and reviewers are highly supportive of the model, believing it promotes better and fairer feedback while giving reviewers the recognition they deserve.
The EJHE first adopted this approach in April 2023. Under this transparent model, the journal publishes the full, anonymous peer review reports alongside every accepted article. The journal’s editors introduced this change to show the rigorous nature of their peer review process and to offer readers a clearer look into their editorial decisions.
The survey participants were EJHE authors and reviewers with experience of the process, and it found high levels of author satisfaction with the quality, speed and decision making under the TPR model. 40% of authors said that EJHE’s peer review was better than other review processes they had experienced and just 2% reported that it was worse. Authors particularly valued the constructive and supportive feedback they received, which helped improve their papers. In addition, 86% of reviewers said that the fact their feedback was being published did not change their approach to writing the review.
Respondents were also asked whether their experience of TPR would influence their decision to write or review for the journal in the future. 73% of authors reported that they were very likely to submit to EJHE again and only 8% said they were unlikely to do so. Although most reviewers said that TPR would not impact whether they reviewed again, as their decision is based on factors such as paper topic, there was a sizeable proportion who said they would actively choose to review for EJHE because of their support for the model.
The full survey results report also reveals whether reviewers would prefer to have their names included on the published review; includes qualitative insights from written responses; and compares author and reviewer perceptions of transparent review before and after experiencing it.
Matthew Cannon, Associate Director of Open Science Programmes at Taylor & Francis said: “We have enjoyed working with the editors of EJHE to create a transparent peer review solution that demonstrates the value of their reviewer community and we are delighted by the positive outcomes of this trial demonstrated by the survey results. We are already planning to build on this success with transparency initiatives for more journals. Thank you to the EJHE editors, who have been great champions for transparent peer review, and to all the reviewers and authors who have embraced this innovative approach.”