Peer review: Award bonus points to motivate reviewers : Nature : Nature Research

"The proliferation of scientific journals is making it harder for editors to recruit peer reviewers. Various incentives (see, for example, Nature 514, 274; 2014) have not substantially changed an archaic system. I propose a smart solution that would benefit reviewers, authors and journals — namely, to award bonus points to reviewers for use towards their own open-access publishing fees.

An estimated 63 million hours were devoted to peer review in 2015 (M. Kovanis et al. PLoS ONE11, e0166387; 2016). However, most journals still continue to thank reviewers merely through an automatic e-mail. Under my proposed system, journals would award points as e-coupons to reviewers according to the quality of their review and the effort they invested in it.

Individual points would accumulate and be tracked to avoid mismatches between reviewers with similar names. Co-authors could combine their own reviewer points to contribute towards publication costs. Reciprocal agreements would allow transfer of points between publishers, but not between individuals.

This reward system would encourage reviewers, potentially enlarging the referee pool. It would also improve review quality and speed up the review process. Because the scheme promotes open-access publication, publishers' revenues would be minimally affected or even increased."