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Strife at eLife: inside a journal’s quest to upend science publishing

Editors threaten to resign over ‘no-reject’ model that others see as the future of research journals.
  1. Alison Abbott
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Last October, the pioneering life-sciences journal eLife introduced bold changes to its editorial practice — which some researchers applauded as reimagining the purpose of a scientific journal. From 31 January this year, eLife said, it would publish every paper it sent out for peer review: authors would never again receive a rejection after a negative review. Instead, reviewers’ reports would be published alongside the paper, together with a short editorial assessment of the work’s significance and rigour. Authors could then decide whether to revise their paper to address any comments.

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Nature 615, 780-781 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00831-6

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 20 March 2023: This article has been updated to highlight that Nature’s news team is editorially independent of the journal’s research team.

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