Nature shift signals ‘new era’ of peer review transparency | Times Higher Education (THE)

Nature’s decision to publish peer review reports alongside journal papers indicates that there is a growing consensus that peer review should be open, experts agreed.

Earlier this month, the prestigious Springer Nature title announced that it would offer authors the option of having anonymous referee reports published, alongside their own responses and rebuttals, once a manuscript is ready. Reviewers can choose to be named if they wish.

It is the latest publisher to allow readers to see discussions between authors and reviewers, following the Swiss-based group MDPI and the Public Library of Science (Plos) stable of titles, which made the switch last year. The move came after dozens of journal editors signed an open letter, published in February 2018, calling for peer review reports to be made public.