Help Libraries Find a Role in Innovative Peer Review: Join Our New Working Group
LIBER is launching an Innovative Peer Review Working Group with two key aims: to explore a wide spectrum of challenges in the peer review field and to understand how research libraries can further facilitate the progressive elements of scholarly communication system.
Why Is Innovation in Peer Review Needed?
We believe that scholarly communication should embrace technical advancements, and the associated opportunities, in order to abandon obsolete and counter-productive means of peer review. Equally, we need to react to social demands for openness: a quality which we hope can be installed as an inherent property of contemporary publishing systems.
There are several developments that the world of scholarly communication currently faces related to peer reviewing:
- reviewing in transversal publication modes;
- connecting preprint servers to overlay journals;
- finding a balance between expediting the process without jeopardising the quality;
- reviewing not only in journal and conference publications, but also in research funding applications;
- exploring transparency concepts;
- integrating with research assessment;
- understanding the role of citizens (vox populi) and machines (the mechanical reviewer) in peer review.
These are some of the developments that can lead to great opportunities for research libraries, especially in the areas of service development, engagement, and training.
How Can I Join?
We are looking for professionals working in LIBER libraries who have expertise in areas including peer review, publishing and editorial units or in helping to run advanced repositories. Library staff working on Open Science software, or those responsible for the advancement of Open Science in their institutions, are also welcome.
Interested? Please express your interest by contacting Dr Giannis Tsakonas, Chair of the Innovative Scholarly Communication Steering Committee. The group will formally start its work in December.