Journal Browser
Search
View All
Opinion
Peer-review credit should be based on the quality of the reports, which should be citable and indexable

Bor Luen Tang*

Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Health System, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117596, Singapore



Editing Practice 2026, 4(1),1-4; https://doi.org/10.67229/EP26060002
Submitted06 Jan 2026
Revised14 Mar 2026
Accepted15 Apr 2026
Published08 Jun 2026
+
Cite This Article
Abstract

The peer-review system in academic publishing is highly stretched to near crisis levels. Several methods, including the introduction of peer-review metrics or indexes, have been proposed to incentivize voluntary uptake of peer-review. However, these are largely based on the prolificacy of peer-review completion, but do not adequately reflect rigor or quality of the review reports. I argue that peer-review credit should also be based on the latter. As such, peer-review reports should be made citable, and these citations might constitute at least part of a comprehensive peer-review metric.

REFERENCES

1. Aczel B, Barwich A S, Diekman A B, et al. The present and future of peer review: Ideas, interventions, and evidence[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2025, 122(5): e2401232121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401232121 

2. Adam D. The peer-review crisis: How to fix an overloaded system[J]. Nature, 2025, 644(8075): 24-27. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02457-2 

3. Breuning M, Backstrom J, Brannon J, et al. Reviewer fatigue? Why scholars decline to review their peers’ work[J]. PS: Political Science & Politics, 2015, 48(4): 595-600. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096515000827

4. Meyerson L A, Suzzi-Simmons A, Simberloff D. Quantifying reviewer declines in scientific publishing: Twenty-one years of data from biological invasions 2002–2024[J]. Biological Invasions, 2025, 27(10): 223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-025-03679-1 

5. Yu H, Liang Y, Xie Y. Can peer review accolade awards motivate reviewers? A large-scale quasi-natural experiment[J]. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2024, 11(1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04088-w 

6. Bianchi F, Grimaldo F, Squazzoni F. The F3-index. Valuing reviewers for scholarly journals[J]. Journal of Informetrics, 2019, 13(1): 78-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.11.007 

7. Malekzadeh M. R-Index: A metric for assessing researcher contributions to peer review[J]. arXiv preprint arXiv: 2407.19949, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.19949

8. Nassani M Z. An index for peer review contributions: An index for peer review contributions[J]. British Dental Journal, 2025, 239(3): 154-155. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-025-9063-y 

9. Hirsch J E. An index to quantify an individuals scientific research output[J]. Proceedings of the National academy of Sciences, 2005, 102(46): 16569-16572. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102 

10. De Souza U J B, Chaúque B J M, Gabev E E, et al. The SPR-Index: A novel metric integrating the h-index with verified peer review scores[J]. Publications, 2025, 13(2): 22. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications13020022 

11. De Cassai A, Boscolo A, Pettenuzzo T, et al. Introducing the ρ-Index: A new metric to valorize and acknowledge the peer-review process[J]. Critical Care Medicine, 2025, 53(9): e1838-e1839. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000006710 

12. Fong E A, Wilhite A W. Authorship and citation manipulation in academic research[J]. PloS One, 2017, 12(12): e0187394. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187394 

13. Joshi P B, Pandey M. Deception through manipulated citations and references as a growing problem in scientific publishing[M]//Scientific Publishing Ecosystem: An Author-Editor-Reviewer Axis. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 2024: 285-306. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-4060-4_17 

14. Tang B L. It is the quality of the review that matters[J]. Science and Engineering Ethics, 2020, 26(2): 1129-1130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-018-0056-y 

15. Schmidt B, Ross-Hellauer T, van Edig X, et al. Ten considerations for open peer review[J]. F1000Research, 2018, 7: 969. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.15334.1 

16. Nature. Transparent peer review to be extended to all of natures research papers[J]. Nature, 2025, 642(542): 8068. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01880-9 

17. O’Sullivan L, Ma L, Doran P. An overview of post-publication peer review[J]. Scholarly Assessment Reports, 2021, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.29024/sar.26 

18. Naddaf M. AI is transforming peer review—and many scientists are worried[J]. Nature, 2025, 639(8056): 852-854. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00894-7 

19. Allen L, Barbour V, Cobey K, et al. A practical guide to implementing responsible research assessment at research performing organizations[J]. Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), 2025. https://sfdora.org/resource/practical-guide/ 

Copyright: © by the authors. Licensee ISTS. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
TOP