Which peer reviewers voluntarily reveal their identity to authors? Insights into the consequences of open-identities peer review.

ABSTRACT: Identifying reviewers is argued to improve the quality and fairness of peer review, but is generally disfavoured by reviewers. To gain some insight into the factors that influence when reviewers are willing to have their identity revealed, I examined which reviewers voluntarily reveal their identities to authors at the journal Functional Ecology, at which reviewer identities are confidential unless reviewers sign their comments to authors. I found that 5.6% of reviewers signed their comments to authors. This proportion increased slightly over time, from 4.4% in 2003-2005 to 6.7% in 2013-2015. Male reviewers were 1.8 times more likely to sign their comments to authors than were female reviewers, and this difference persisted over time. Few reviewers signed all of their reviews; revie

SUBMITTER: Fox CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8548798 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature