What Is Peer Review Worth? Rethinking the Economics of Academic Reviewing
29 September, 2026 – 2pm BST, 3pm CEST, 9am EDT
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Peer review is fundamental to scholarly publishing. But the system relies overwhelmingly on researchers giving their time and expertise for free – often while publishers struggle to find reviewers and authors wait weeks or months for decisions.
Is that model still sustainable?
As submission volumes increase and demands on researchers grow, the question of whether peer reviewers should be paid is moving from the margins of scholarly publishing into the mainstream.
And there is now evidence to inform the debate.
Biology Open, published by The Company of Biologists, has introduced a model in which pre-contracted reviewers are paid for reviews that meet defined standards for quality and timeliness. Its experience raises an intriguing question for the wider scholarly communications community: if paying reviewers can make peer review faster and more reliable, should other publishers follow?
But introducing money into peer review also raises difficult questions.
Could payment improve recognition of the skilled work reviewers perform – or undermine the principle of peer review as a contribution to the scholarly community? Would it create new incentives around speed and volume? Could larger commercial publishers afford models that smaller societies cannot? And, if reviewers are paid, where should the boundary between voluntary academic contribution and paid publishing work be drawn?
Join Research Information and a panel of experts from across scholarly publishing as we examine the economics, incentives and future of peer review.
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Our panellists will explore whether peer review really is in crisis; what we can learn from experiments with paid reviewers; how reviewer expertise should be valued and recognised; and the potential consequences – intended and unintended – of introducing financial reward.
We’ll also look beyond payment to ask a bigger question:
If we were designing peer review from scratch today, what would we build?
From professional reviewer networks and better recognition to workflow technology, AI-assisted reviewing and new models of academic service, the panel will consider what peer review could look like by 2030.
Topics for discussion will include:
• Is the traditional voluntary peer review model sustainable?
• Should reviewing be regarded as academic citizenship – or skilled professional labour?
• What happens when reviewers are paid?
• Does payment improve speed, participation and quality?
• What is a high-quality peer review actually worth?
• Who should pay – publishers, institutions, funders or authors?
• Could paid reviewing create unintended incentives or new inequalities?
• What role can technology and AI play in reducing reviewer burden?
• Should reviewer contributions receive greater institutional and career recognition?
• Will paid peer review become a normal part of scholarly publishing?
Who should attend?
• Commercial and society publishers
• Journal editors and editorial teams
• Researchers and academics
• Scholarly communications professionals
• Academic and research librarians
• Research offices and institutional leaders
• Publishing technology and infrastructure providers
• Research integrity professionals