Day/time: May 6, 2025, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT
Title: Exploring the Landscape of Peer Review Models
Presenters:
- Iliana Cosme-Brooks (she/her), Open Publishing Coordinator, Virginia Tech
- Corinne Guimont (she/her), Associate Director, Publishing and Digital Scholarship, Virginia Tech
- Patrick Tomlin (he/him), Associate Dean, Academic and Creative Engagement, Virginia Tech
- Cheryl Ball, Executive Director, Council of Editors of Learned Journals
Description: Peer review is often a crucial step in producing modern, rigorous scholarship and, therefore, carries a lot of weight within the publishing process. But as definitions, modalities, and topics of scholarship have evolved, new peer review models have been created and piloted to meet these changes. Understandably, many questions have emerged regarding the relationship between open access publishing and open peer review; how to conduct scholarly peer review for nontraditional digital scholarship; and the ethical implications of every peer review model.
This session will be a semi-structured discussion on the nuances of different peer review models—exploring perceptions and impacts of various models on the entire publishing process. Discussion topics will include:
A comparison of open vs. closed peer review models, especially how they impact multiply marginalized authors, “junior” and nontenured scholars, production costs and labor/capacity, compensation and credit, and consent.
“Hybridization” of peer review models—i.e., combining open and closed models— identifying what counts as “rigorous” and “scholarly,” and the various definitions of “open” and “closed.”
How to approach writing or adapting peer review models for nontraditional formats (e.g., digital humanities and multimedia publications).
Accessibility of the peer review process—how reviewers of different abilities can participate, especially if publications may not yet be fully accessible.
What policies do we have or could we develop as library publishers to support an evolving peer review landscape.