Industry updates: Publons

Andrew Preston

Andrew Preston from Publons outlined their focus on peer review. As a crucial part of the publishing process, peer review is a leading indicator; it's what the experts thought. It is also valuable content.

Publons is about recognition for good review and a measurable research output for reviewers and editors. It is a proof of quality review process for journals.

They believe openness breeds quality. They provide tools for editors. They measure impact, help them engage with reviewers, and assist with finding, vetting and connecting with reviewers. Finally they build communities to help generate engagement, combining pre- and post-pub reviews with searchable, indexed content.

Publons in numbers

The journal adds review. Publons emails a unique token to reviewer. The reviewer signs in and selects privacy settings. They combine and respect views of journal editor as well as reviewer on how much content they show on Publons. There are two versions of the review - public and private. They have found that regular reviewers review up to 50 articles a year. It can be a leading indicator of expertise.

The service highlights the quality of review process by showing reviews and reviewers. It helps building a community. It helps with Almetrics as they always link to your content. Every review on Publons is eligible to appear in Altmetric so you will never see a zero again. This helps to build out the long tail of articles that don't get picked up in the press! They always link back to content. The article is not their focus so they generate clicks back to the publisher's website. There are a suite of editor tools and it helps them find a reviewer. For publishers, it helps to get more submissions as well as better and faster reviews. It boosts article level metrics and generates post-publication discussion.

Further information available on the Publons website. If you are a publisher and would like to see some metrics about reviews on Publons, complete this online form.