Open peer review
PeerScience is a free platform for publishing peer-reviewed research in any field. Your work is reviewed by verified researchers, and once it's published, the full review history is public.
We're opening PeerScience to its first authors and reviewers, and we'd be glad to have you with us.
Not a journal
Many journals charge authors, readers, or both, select papers by scope, perceived importance and other editorial priorities, and keep the review process closed. PeerScience offers free and transparent access to peer-reviewed knowledge through a direct chain:
- Author
- Peer reviewers
- Reader
| Aspect | Traditional journal | PeerScience |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Fees for authors (APCs), readers (subscriptions), or both | Free for authors and readers |
| What gets published | Selected by scope, perceived importance and editorial priorities | Any field; scientific soundness is the only criterion |
| Who decides | An editor, advised by reviewers | Peer reviewers, by transparent voting rules |
| Review process | Usually closed and anonymous | Double-blind during review, fully public after publication |
| Path to the reader | Author → editor → reviewers → editor → paywall → reader | Author → peer reviewers → reader, with no fees or paywalls in between |
How it works
Submit
Choose your research field and upload your manuscript. Until it's published, only you and your reviewers can see it.
Double-blind review
Reviewers see an anonymised version of your paper. You also don't see who they are while the review is in progress.
Revise
Answer the reviewers' comments and upload new versions. Every version is kept for the record.
You decide when to publish
Once your paper is approved, publish it automatically, whenever you like, or on a date you choose. Even if it isn't approved, you can still make it public, clearly labelled as not approved by reviewers. Whether the work and its review become visible is your choice.
Full transparency
Once you publish your paper, every version of it, the reviews, your responses and the reviewers' names become public, so every reader can see how the work was assessed.
Reviewers
On PeerScience, reviewers are the heroes of science, not its unnamed labour
Reviewers on PeerScience are researchers with a publication record in the field they review. To become one, you apply with your field of expertise and links to your published work. We check that the two match before granting reviewing rights.
Reviewers judge whether the methods are sound and the conclusions are supported by the data. Not whether a result is fashionable or "important enough."
They make the decisions, not an editor. Once a paper is published, their names and reviews appear alongside it and become part of their own scientific record. We believe signed reviews are better reviews.
Our commitments
Transparency is built into every step.
- Transparent access
- Free to publish, free to read. No publication fees, no paywalls.
- Transparent scope
- Any field and any scale of result, from a major discovery to a careful negative finding. The only criterion is scientific soundness.
- Transparent reviewer selection
- Reviewers are chosen automatically and at random from researchers with matching expertise. No one hand-picks them.
- Transparent decisions
- Reviewers decide, by open voting rules that are the same for every paper. Platform administrators can see how the process runs but cannot change the outcome.
- Transparent record
- When a paper is published, the whole review opens: every version, every review, the authors' responses and the reviewers' names. Nothing is deleted. A published paper can be withdrawn, but it stays online with a notice and the reason.
Who's behind PeerScience
PeerScience was started by Alexander Lavrov, a medical molecular geneticist with more than twenty years in research and molecular diagnostics. His work spans the diagnostics of hereditary diseases, next-generation sequencing and genome editing for rare disorders such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. He has built and led genetics laboratories in several countries, supervises PhD students and has authored over one hundred peer-reviewed papers. ResearchGate
As an author and a reviewer, he has seen how much good research is slowed down by fees, editorial gatekeeping and closed review, and how little credit reviewers receive for their work. PeerScience is his attempt to build the system he would want to publish in.
The platform is designed by Konstantin Kuznichenko, a product designer with more than twenty years of experience designing complex user flows and design systems for financial products. LinkedIn
We're a small team, and we read every message. Questions, criticism and ideas are welcome at contact@peerscience.io.
Be among the first
PeerScience is just starting. The first papers and the first reviews published here will set the standard for everything that follows. If you'd like to help shape it, join as a founding author or reviewer.