Preliminary data are in for a Nature Neuroscience peer-review experiment (http://tinyurl.com/cs95jo). Last year, the journal joined the Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium, a group of journals that have agreed to offer authors the option to transfer peer reviews of manuscripts to another journal when a manuscript is no longer under consideration at the first journal. The consortium's goals include speeding up publication and reducing the burden on reviewers.

In an April editorial, the journal's editors share that only a handful of transfers have taken place, all of them from Nature Neuroscience to the Journal of Neuroscience. The transfers represent less than 1% of manuscripts rejected after review. Authors who participated reported a saving of time and effort for papers that were eventually published, even when new referees were chosen. There were no transfers to Nature Neuroscience from other journals.

More data will be needed to determine whether the group is meeting its goals, but the editors hope that transfer rates may increase as more authors become aware of the consortium.