Peer Review Week 2020: Fostering Trust in Peer Review at SAGE

By Katie Gibson

At SAGE, high quality peer review is a cornerstone of our approach to journal publishing, which is why we’re once again supporting Peer Review Week, taking place September 21 – 25. Although the theme for this year’s Peer Review Week, ‘trust’, was selected long before the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic became clear, 2020 has emerged as the year when trust in scientific research has been a deciding factor in how different governments and populations have responded to the crisis.

We’ve been working hard to ensure all our COVID-related research is both easily accessible and reliable. All original research articles that are focused on COVID-19 are being made open access via a Creative Commons license on publication, and we have waived the article processing charge (APC) on relevant research articles throughout the outbreak.  In March, we curated a collection of free-to-access articles covering working, living, and educating during a pandemic, strategies for containment and health security, effects on national/international infrastructure, and research into past pandemics. We have also worked with our Editors to ensure high standards of peer review are maintained despite the challenging circumstances, and added messaging to our submission sites to keep authors informed of possible delays due to the busy schedules and conflicting priorities of many researchers.

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process, SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. By uniquely and persistently identifying researchers and contributors, ORCID lays the foundation for trust in a digital research environment. This year, we’ve made ORCIDs mandatory for submitting authors on 940 of our journals, and we are actively promoting the use of ORCID by co-authors and reviewers on an optional basis.

Through our partnership with Publons, we have now integrated close to 1,000 SAGE journals with the platform, making it easy for SAGE reviewers to get recognition for their reviews. Meanwhile, we’re helping SAGE authors to gain recognition for their contributions through our CRediT taxonomy trial. Authors submitting to any of the five journals included in the trial are asked to list the contributions of each author, based on 14 pre-defined types of contribution.

In June, we updated our Reviewer Gateway to help reviewers, and especially early career researchers, more easily find the resources they need. We also created a short series of video guides on becoming a reviewer, writing a review, and an introduction to peer review ethics.

To coincide with Peer Review Week, we’re circulating our new Reviewer Selection Handbook to all SAGE journal editors to help them source qualified, credible reviewers. In addition to practical search tips, the Handbook outlines the SAGE policies and industry best practices which are integral to maintaining effective and ethical peer review. 

At SAGE, we’re celebrating Peer Review Week with a webinar on How to Be a Peer Reviewer on Tuesday 22nd September. Jennifer Lovick, Executive Editor of Cancer Control and Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment and Bailey Baumann, Managing Editor of SAGE Open will present on this topic along with a panel of peer review specialists and journal Editors from various disciplines The webinar is now fully-booked, but you can register here to receive the recording after the event.

We also have some interesting thought pieces lined up, including topics such as building trust through transparent peer review, and how the open nature of preprints can develop trust in the fast-paced world of COVID research, as well as advice for authors on preparing a manuscript for peer review. From open peer review to reviewer training, there are many ways to foster trust in peer review, and we’re looking forward to a fruitful week of discussion and debate – follow along using the hashtags #PeerRevWk20 and #TrustInPeerReview.

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