Opening up Peer Review | Genetics | Oxford Academic

"How will open peer review at GENETICS work in practice? GENETICS will publish the complete review record of articles whose authors opt in at manuscript acceptance. This record will be published alongside the article and will include a timeline, reviewer reports, author responses, and the editors’ decision letters. Reviewers are made aware that their reports could become part of the published record when they are invited to review; their reviews remain anonymous unless they choose otherwise.

GENETICS participates in portable peer review, so authors can ask us to use reviews from another journal to make decisions on a manuscript they submit to GENETICS. In those cases, we will not publish reviews transferred to our journals from another journal.

While several journals and publishers have adopted open or transparent peer review processes, the data on uptake and usefulness are far from conclusive. So we see this as an experiment. We will survey authors, reviewers, and readers and report back with the results. Meanwhile, we hope you will participate—as an author, reviewer, or reader—and let us know what you think."