15 February 2022 – The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded EMBO a grant to support the operation and development of Review Commons, the journal-independent peer review platform launched in 2019 by EMBO and ASAPbio. The grant secures the ongoing ability of Review Commons to operate at no cost to authors while allowing the project team to further promote the use of refereed preprints and expand the reach of the platform.
Review Commons provides expert peer review of preprint articles submitted to the platform by their authors. Reviews obtained by Review Commons can be publicly posted with the authors’ response alongside the related preprints, giving immediate and transparent access to the scientific debate generated by new findings and added reassurance that the reported research has undergone expert evaluation. Furthermore, 17 journals, including those published by EMBO Press, PLOS, the Company of Biologists as well as eLife, Molecular Biology of the Cell and Journal of Cell Biology, collaborate with Review Commons to accelerate formal publication by reusing preprint peer reviews rather than starting the peer review process afresh.
We are pleased to support the development of Review Commons to promote the peer review of preprints as an efficient and transparent way of disseminating new research
Erin O’Shea, HHMI President
“We are pleased to support the development of Review Commons to promote the peer review of preprints as an efficient and transparent way of disseminating new research,” says Erin O’Shea, HHMI President, “The COVID-19 epidemic has shown the world the importance of rapid communication of scientific research but also the importance of securing trust in the quality of the disseminated research. The Review Commons platform is contributing towards this goal.”
“Our vision for Review Commons is a platform that accelerates public access to rigorously peer-reviewed research and increases the efficiency of the publishing process,” says Fiona Watt, EMBO Director. The HHMI award will support the continued operation of Review Commons and its expansion to serve a broader community, including fields such as neurosciences and immunology. “We will continue to work closely with our affiliate journals to optimize the efficiency of formal publishing.” adds Thomas Lemberger, Review Commons Project Lead at EMBO, “We will also implement policies to establish the systematic posting of peer reviews with preprints and work towards their recognition by funders and institutions as bona fide academic research output.”
“Review Commons has proven to be a successful experiment,” says Jessica Polka, Review Commons Project Lead at ASAPbio, “and with this grant from HHMI, I’m excited to see it scale up to drive the fast and transparent communication of scientific results.”
