Peer review and diversity are two topics that are especially close to my heart, so I’m delighted to announce that the theme of this year’s Peer Review Week is…drum roll…Diversity in Peer Review (#PeerRevDiversityInclusion).

It’s been great to see so much more attention being paid to issues around diversity and inclusion recently, both here on the Kitchen, where we’ve published 12 posts on the topic already this year (with more in the pipeline); and in the wider scholarly publishing community, including the soon-to-be-announced Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC), founded by a group of 11 scholarly publishing organizations, including SSP.

peer review week logo

We’re hoping that, as well as taking the broadest possible approach to the topic of diversity, this year’s Peer Review Week will also be more diverse and inclusive in terms of the organizations participating. So, as well as events, publications, and online discussions on issues ranging from peer review of and by early career researchers to the latest research on bias in peer review,  we’re also expecting participation from a broader spectrum of organizations — and countries — than ever before, thanks in part to the efforts of a newly formed Outreach Committee*.

On behalf of the 2018 Peer Review Week Organizing Committee, I warmly invite you to join in the celebrations! This year, for the first time, we have developed a set of Peer Review Week resources to help anyone who’d like to plan their own event. The PRW Event in a Box materials are freely available to download and use under a CC0 license. We’d love to help spread the word about your Peer Review Week events and activities, so be sure to send information about your plans to peerreviewweek@outlook.com, using the subject line “Peer Review Week”. Please include a brief description of the event or resource you’d like us to feature on the Peer Review Week website.  

Peer Review Week 2018 will run from September 10-15, and I’m happy to say that, once again, Karin Wulf and I will be co-editing a week of posts on the topic here on the Kitchen. These will include a peer-review-themed Ask the Chefs; Peer Review 101: a roundup of the most popular Scholarly Kitchen posts on peer review; a guest post by Jason Roberts and Donald Samulack on Practical Learnings for Managing and Technical Editors from the 8th International Congress on Peer Review and Scientific Publication (based on their session on this topic at the upcoming ISMTE meeting); a literature review of recent studies of bias in peer review including a summary of recommendations for addressing it; and a big picture piece on the environmental requirements for healthy, transparent, diverse peer review.

If you have a favorite peer review post that you’d like to see included in the Peer Review 101 collection, or a suggestion for the literature review — any other comments or ideas for Peer Review Week 2018 in general — then please do let us know. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter – @PeerRevWeek #PeerReviewWeek18.

We look forward to celebrating with you in September!

*Disclaimer: I am one of the Co-Chairs of the 2018 Outreach Committee

Alice Meadows

Alice Meadows

I am a Co-Founder of the MoreBrains Cooperative, a scholarly communications consultancy with a focus on open research and research infrastructure. I have many years experience of both scholarly publishing (including at Blackwell Publishing and Wiley) and research infrastructure (at ORCID and, most recently, NISO, where I was Director of Community Engagement). I’m actively involved in the information community, and served as SSP President in 2021-22. I was honored to receive the SSP Distinguished Service Award in 2018, the ALPSP Award for Contribution to Scholarly Publishing in 2016, and the ISMTE Recognition Award in 2013. I’m passionate about improving trust in scholarly communications, and about addressing inequities in our community (and beyond!). Note: The opinions expressed here are my own

Discussion