Peer review initiatives

On this page: Reviewer information | Supporting ECRs | Diversity | ORCID

We strive to innovate in our peer-review process, to improve its efficacy, quality and transparency. We are constantly monitoring and reviewing our efforts to address more closely the needs of the research community. 

Reviewer information

In recognition of the time and expertise our reviewers provide to the editorial process, all Nature Reviews journals formally acknowledge their contribution to the external peer review of published articles. For manuscripts submitted from the 6th of January 2020 onwards, we will include a statement of thanks on all peer-reviewed content published in the Nature Reviews journals including on articles where reviewers choose to remain anonymous and we will leave the choice to be named solely to the reviewer. For manuscripts submitted prior to the 6th of January 2020, publication of the reviewer’s names and the statement is conditional on the authors opting in. We will NOT be publishing any of the submitted peer review comments nor add names of reviewers to the peer review reports sent to the authors. Please refer to this page for more information and the complete policy of Reviewer information at Nature Reviews.

Supporting early-career researchers

The Nature Reviews journals are committed to facilitating training in peer review and to ensuring that everyone involved in our peer-review process is appropriately recognised. We have therefore started an initiative to encourage established referees to involve an early-career researcher (ECR) in our peer review process on all Nature Reviews journals. The review that they compile together will be considered a co-review, meaning that both receive recognition for their contributions. We will send instructions to the early-career researcher and ensure that their referee activity is logged on our systems so that they are recognised for their review activity.

Diversity

Nature Research is committed to promoting practices that support diversity and inclusion. One of these efforts involves aiming for a diverse representation within the reviewer pool. The Nature Reviews journals therefore consistently try to obtain a diverse set of reviewers for each manuscript. We recognise that there are many dimensions to diversity, including gender, race/ethnicity, geography and career stage; more information about our commitment to diversity can be found here.

ORCID for reviewers

Springer Nature is committed to recognizing the valuable and critical role performed by peer reviewers. We fully support verifying and crediting your review activity directly from our manuscript submission systems to ORCID. More information can be found here. Please note that we strongly encourage our authors and reviewers to obtain an ORCID account, and link it to our manuscript tracking system. Information on how to do this can be found here.