PLOS outlines measures in response to PNAS study on peer review integrity - August 11, 2025
PLOS has issued a statement in response to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that examined the scale of paper mill operations and peer review manipulation across scholarly publishing. The analysis, which used openly available articles, identified coordinated misconduct patterns such… Read More
South Africa updates Code of Best Practice for scholarly publishing - August 7, 2025
The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) has released the 2025 edition of the Revised Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing, and Peer Review, marking a renewed commitment to ethical and transparent research practices. Initially introduced in 2004 and updated in 2018, the… Read More
Leading medical journal editors reaffirm commitment to independent scientific review - August 6, 2025
The editors-in-chief of JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine have defended the role of editorial independence in advancing scientific rigor, responding to recent threats to bar government scientists from publishing in established peer-reviewed journals. In a joint opinion piece published in The… Read More
Study reveals risks to peer review integrity from AI-generated feedback - August 1, 2025
A new study has revealed that large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Claude can be used to generate biased peer reviews that are difficult to distinguish from those written by humans, presenting a significant threat to the credibility of scholarly publishing. The peer review process remains essential for… Read More
Frontiers retracts 122 articles following exposure of peer review manipulation network - July 30, 2025
Frontiers has identified and retracted 122 articles across five of its journals after uncovering a coordinated network of authors and editors involved in peer review processes marked by undisclosed conflicts of interest and citation manipulation. The findings emerged from an investigation conducted by Frontiers’ Research Integrity Auditing… Read More
Royal Meteorological Society launches Peer Review Guide for early career researchers - July 25, 2025
The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) has released a Peer Review Guide to support early career researchers in developing the skills and confidence needed to participate in scholarly evaluation. The initiative responds to increasing demand for reviewers and interest among early-stage academics who feel underprepared… Read More
Nature adopts a universal transparent peer review for all new research submissions - June 19, 2025
Nature, a leading international scientific journal published by Springer Nature, has made transparent peer review (TPR) a standard for all newly submitted primary research articles selected for publication. The policy shift, which builds on the journal’s prior opt-in model introduced in 2020, marks a… Read More
EPJ Applied Physics adopts NESTOR editorial platform - April 21, 2025
EPJ Applied Physics, an international peer-reviewed journal focusing on applied physics and materials science, has transitioned to NESTOR, a new editorial submission system developed by EDP Sciences. This change replaces the previous MMS platform and reflects an effort to enhance the submission and peer… Read More
IOP Publishing recognizes outstanding peer reviewers for 2024 - March 24, 2025
IOP Publishing (IOPP) has announced the recipients of its Outstanding Reviewer Awards for 2024, honoring exceptional contributions to the peer review process. These annual awards acknowledge reviewers whose evaluations have demonstrated excellence, reinforcing the importance of peer review in upholding research quality and integrity.… Read More
NIH centralizes peer review to improve efficiency and strengthen integrity - March 7, 2025
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is centralizing the peer review process for all applications for grants, cooperative agreements, and research and development contracts. This effort is expected to save more than $65 million annually by eliminating redundancies across the agency and improving efficiency. More than 80%… Read More
