In support of journal-agnostic review | ASAPbio

"It’s easy to dismiss a paper when we think we know what the journal wants. In contrast, I found time and again that when a journal is new (and I’ve helped launch several journals, including Molecular Cell, Developmental Cell, PLOS Biology, and Disease Models & Mechanisms), peer reviews would take on a different quality. Reviewers would write something like, “I don’t know how to advise you because I don’t know what your standards are or what you want in the journal, so I guess I’ll just tell you the strengths and weaknesses of the paper and you will have to decide.” (Thank you, this is all I ever wanted). At the same time, authors would remark that the reviews were unusually constructive – whether we chose to accept or reject the paper. These are anecdotal observations, and I would love to collect some data on the quality of review when you don’t know journal identity.

Back in my days as a journal editor, not many biologists were posting preprints, so my idea was to create a “journal blind” submission system during standard peer review. But with BioRxiv and other preprint servers, performing peer review in advance of journal publication becomes possible. I encourage the community to try it, gather some data, and proceed based on evidence."