Nature peers at review process

Alongside Nature's traditional, confidential peer review process, scientists now can donate their papers to an experimental cause: open peer review. During a three-month trial period that began June 5, authors can elect to post their work online in tandem with the conventional process. Anyone can access the paper on a preprint server, and Nature will post any comments identified by a name and institutional e-mail address, provided they aren't libelous. As Nature editors review submissions in the conventional way, they will read the online postings to "test the quality of unsolicited comments," as noted in a Web statement describing the process. The comments will not affect Nature's publication decisions. After the trial period, Nature will report its results and choose to keep or discard open peer review, on the basis of its popularity and its usefulness to the editors. Nature invites readers to weigh in on whether the peer review process should be open or confidential through Nature's Web debate at www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/index.html.