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Peer review and preprint policies are unclear at most major journals

View ORCID ProfileThomas Klebel, View ORCID ProfileStefan Reichmann, View ORCID ProfileJessica Polka, View ORCID ProfileGary McDowell, View ORCID ProfileNaomi Penfold, View ORCID ProfileSamantha Hindle, View ORCID ProfileTony Ross-Hellauer
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.24.918995
Thomas Klebel
Graz University of Technology, Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science, Graz, Austria
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  • For correspondence: thomas.klebel@tugraz.at
Stefan Reichmann
Graz University of Technology, Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science, Graz, Austria
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Jessica Polka
ASAPbio, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
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Gary McDowell
Lightoller LLC, Chicago, IL, United States of America
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Naomi Penfold
ASAPbio, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
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Samantha Hindle
bioRxiv, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, United States of America
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Tony Ross-Hellauer
Graz University of Technology, Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science, Graz, Austria
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Abstract

Clear and findable publishing policies are important for authors to choose appropriate journals for publication. We investigated the clarity of policies of 171 major academic journals across disciplines regarding peer review and preprinting. 31.6% of journals surveyed do not provide information on the type of peer review they use. Information on whether preprints can be posted or not is unclear in 39.2% of journals. 58.5% of journals offer no clear information on whether reviewer identities are revealed to authors. Around 75% of journals have no clear policy on co-reviewing, citation of preprints, and publication of reviewer identities. Information regarding practices of Open Peer Review is even more scarce, with <20% of journals providing clear information. Having found a lack of clear information, we conclude by examining the implications this has for researchers (especially early career) and the spread of open research practices.

Footnotes

  • https://zenodo.org/record/3627116

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 30, 2020.
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Peer review and preprint policies are unclear at most major journals
Thomas Klebel, Stefan Reichmann, Jessica Polka, Gary McDowell, Naomi Penfold, Samantha Hindle, Tony Ross-Hellauer
bioRxiv 2020.01.24.918995; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.24.918995
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Peer review and preprint policies are unclear at most major journals
Thomas Klebel, Stefan Reichmann, Jessica Polka, Gary McDowell, Naomi Penfold, Samantha Hindle, Tony Ross-Hellauer
bioRxiv 2020.01.24.918995; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.24.918995

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