2022 in review
I founded PeerRef late last year, so 2022 is the first full year that PeerRef has existed. I am proud of what we have achieved this year and grateful to everyone that helped PeerRef develop. Here are some of the best parts of PeerRef's journey in 2022!
We increased the discoverability of reviews with Sciety, bioRxiv, and Hypothesis
At the beginning of the year, PeerRef became part of bioRxiv’s TRiP feature. It enables anyone to read PeerRef peer review reports alongside bioRxiv and medRxiv preprints by clicking one button. PeerRef also became a group on eLife’s Sciety. Sciety aggregates refereed preprints so anyone can discover and curate lists of refereed preprints. It’s a little like Spotify, but for preprints. You can follow us on Sciety, by following this link: sciety.org/groups/peerref/about. We’re very grateful to Hypothesis for providing the software that makes all this possible!
The bioRxiv and medRxiv TRiP feature increases the visibility of open peer review reports
We established publisher partnerships
We want to develop publisher partnerships so journal editors can publish refereed preprints quickly. We established our first publisher partnership with JMIR Publications and became a member of their Plan P community. Through this partnership, authors of refereed preprints have a route to rapid publication at JMIR and other plan P journals. This portfolio of journals includes the Diamond and broad scope, JMIRx | Med and JMIRx |Bio journals. This option is great for authors that want to create a Version of Record with a publisher. Later in the year, we also developed a partnership with the innovative GigaScience Press. We want to give authors as much choice as possible, so if you are a publisher or an editor, please get in contact with us. We would love to enable authors to send their refereed preprints to your journal.
We received investment
In Spring, PeerRef was selected to join the Bethnal Green Ventures accelerator programme. The programme included 12 weeks of workshops, networking, and expert support. PeerRef also received startup investment. The investment is helping us to build the platform and develop the service. Through the programme, we strengthened the foundations of PeerRef, met great people, and presented PeerRef during our first demo day.
I pitched PeerRef at BGV’s demo day. Images by: Ben Peter Catchpole / Bethnal Green Ventures
We collaborated with publishers, funders and researchers
Throughout Autumn, I have been part of an ASAPbio working group looking at how journals can recognize preprint peer review. It culminated in a meeting organised by HHMI, ASAPbio, and EMBO at the Janelia Research Campus in Virginia. The goal was to promote community support for preprint peer review and to create funder, institutional, and journal policies that recognize reviews of preprints. The meeting was a fantastic opportunity to participate in a panel on business models, meet stakeholders, and learn about the diverse perspectives of researchers, funders, and publishers.
HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus
We participated in events
Over the past year, we participated in several events where we presented PeerRef. We were invited to STM’s Start-Up Fair and to pitch PeerRef to Karger’s Vesalius Innovation award judges. We also contributed to an eLife workshop alongside PREreview and Sciety where we discussed innovations in peer review with researchers from diverse backgrounds and career stages.
We launched our platform
In December, we launched the first version of our platform! The platform publishes peer reviews, author responses, and referee decisions. It is a huge step forward for PeerRef as it enables authors, referees, and everyone else to share, read, and discover reviews. The platform also allows us to register DOIs for each peer review. DOIs enable us to link peer reviews to preprints and allows anyone to cite the reviews. Our platform is at an early stage of development. Therefore, we would appreciate any feedback. Check out the platform here: peerrefplatform.com/. We will also continue to post reviews alongside preprints at bioRxiv, medRxiv, and Sciety.
Share, read, and discover open peer reviews on PeerRef’s platform
We helped researchers
Most important of all, we have organised the peer review of preprints! We have published 48 peer reviews. Some authors chose to send their refereed preprints for publication in a partner journal. Other authors decided to keep the verified preprint as the final version. By receiving a peer review from PeerRef, one researcher was able to apply for the Ben Barres Spotlight award, and they won (congrats, Reeteka)!
We're grateful to the authors and referees that gave us feedback so we could iterate and improve our peer review process.
We’re happy to have helped authors get feedback on their research, allowed referees to get credit for their work, and helped publishers reduce repeated peer review by providing them with review reports. We will continue to improve, grow, and provide our service to more researchers throughout 2023!
Elliott Lumb, PhD — Founder and CEO
In 2018, Elliott completed a PhD in medicinal chemistry at Monash University and the University of Nottingham. Following this, he held several roles at the high-growth publisher, Frontiers. He managed a team of commissioning specialists and then moved to the Strategy and Planning team. Elliott launched PeerRef in 2021.