John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb) — a global provider of knowledge-based services in areas of research, professional development, and education — today announced the launch of a six-month pilot program in partnership with Publons.com. The pilot enables peer reviewers for selected Wiley journals to get credit for their peer reviews on Publons.
Publons works with reviewers, publishers, universities, and funding agencies to turn peer review into a measurable research output. Peer review information from reviewers and from publishers is collected by Publons to produce comprehensive reviewer profiles with publisher-verified peer review contributions that researchers can add to their resume and use to showcase their expertise.
“Peer review is the foundation for safeguarding the quality and integrity of scientific and scholarly research. Wiley’s objective is to develop a program of reviewer services in order to engage reviewers and recognize their contribution,” said Miriam Maus, Vice President of Editorial Management, Research Communications for Wiley.
The pilot program will help Wiley to assess whether awarding credit on Publons encourages researchers to accept an invitation to review, whether the quality and speed of reviewing is affected, and whether reviewers feel more engaged and satisfied with their experience.
Andrew Preston, CEO and co-founder of Publons, said of the partnership, “This partnership is another step in the Publons mission to speed up science by making peer review faster, more efficient, and more effective. Wiley is a leading academic publisher and we’re excited at the opportunity to work together to reward Wiley peer reviewers and improve the review process for all stakeholders—editors, reviewers, authors, and publishing representatives.”
Currently, there are 500 Wiley reviewers already using Publons, with 1,800 reviews in 400 journals. The pilot program will run across up to 12 Wiley-owned titles, including:
- Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics
- British Journal of Haematology
- Child: Care, Health and Development
- Developmental Science
- International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
- Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
- Journal of Surgical Oncology
- Molecular Ecology
- Statistics in Medicine
- Surface and Interface Analysis
“The Wiley-Publons pilot is part of our commitment to innovate in the area of peer review and to experiment with new approaches, which further develop the reviewer experience. Our aim is to evolve peer review to better meet the requirements of researchers.” confirms Verity Warne, Senior Manager of Peer Reviewer Marketing at Wiley.
