abstract:Open peer review describes a scholarly/scientific literature concept and process, central to which is the various transparency and disclosure of the identities of those reviewing scientific publications. The concept thus represents a departure from, and an alternative to, the incumbent anonymous peer review process, in which non-disclosure of these identities toward the public – and toward the authors of the work under review – is default practice.
The idea is that the open source model — distributeddevelopment, a transparent development process, and peerreviewofcode — is betterthan the proprietary development model.
Many scientists, physicists in particular, now upload drafts of their papers into public archives paid for by networks of universities for the general good. (The most popular is known as arXiv, the middle letter being a Greek chi.) Here, manuscripts are subject to a ruthless process of openpeerreview, rather than the secret sort traditional publishers employ.
Written by Dr Alma Swan, an eminent expert in the field of Open Access, the draft went through an open consultation and peerreview at the Open Access Community in the WSIS Knowledge Communities.