Steps in the creation of a new PCI

Information about PCI

-Proposers are invited to read the PCI website: https://peercommunityin.org

-PCI blog posts are good resources for proposers: https://peercommunityin.org/blog-posts/

Adherence to PCI principles

-Quality, reproducibility, and accessibility of science are the three main goals of PCI.

-The quality of a scientific article should be evaluated by its content and not by the journal in which it is published or by the journal’s notoriety metrics.

-Preprints or registered reports evaluated and validated by a PCI have at least the same value as articles published in scientific journals.

-Open-access free for readers and authors is desirable in the field of scientific publishing.

-Scientific publishing should not be as expensive as it is today.

-Science should be free of financial conflicts of interest.

-Evaluation of scientific articles should be a transparent process

Basic steps in the creation of a PCI

-Preliminary discussions with the PCI team

-Setting up of a group of 2-3 co-managers

-Definition of a topic

-Gathering a group of > 50 recommenders

-Gathering > 20 submission pledges in a year

-Submission of the project to the PCI association for approval

Detailed steps for the creation of a PCI

1) Preliminary discussions with the PCI team

Before starting a PCI creation project, we recommend contacting the PCI team to discuss your project: contact@peercommunityin.org. This discussion aims to help shape your project by sharing material (e.g. templates to contact colleagues), ideas, and our experience developing previous PCIs.

2) Choose one or two colleagues to set up and manage the PCI

Having at least two co-managers improves the monitoring and sustainability of the project. Co-managers will be responsible for the next steps of creating the new PCI.

3) Define the scientific field covered by your PCI

This field should be defined carefully. A wider scientific field may attract more papers, resulting in a more successful PCI. However, ensure the new PCI does not overlap too much with existing or forthcoming PCIs. A scientific field large enough to gather several thousands of researchers is expected. We prefer broad PCIs compared to small ones because the experience shows that broad PCIs are more active, it’s easier to organise the communication and to reach many people,  it allows better visibility for each PCI and for the PCI organisation, they can include sub-fields that are initially unrepresented, they are more attractive to societies, libraries, institutions, and universities. In addition, we prefer PCIs based on scientific disciplines (e.g., ecology) to PCIs based on objects (e.g., water pollution). Authors (notably younger researchers) seem often more attracted by (or more frequent to) publishing in their scientific discipline rather than in a multidisciplinary section related to their object/species.

4) Establish a first group of recommenders

You must establish a group of at least 50 recommenders (the equivalent of associate editors in traditional journals). This initial group of recommenders must be high-quality scientists, recognized in the field, with as many international members as possible, members of learned societies and editorial boards of renowned journals in the field, and winners of prizes or competitions, for example.

The success of a PCI depends on including both high-profile senior scientists and dynamic young researchers. Gender parity and geographic diversity are desirable.

5) Get submission pledges

It’s important to start the new PCI knowing there will be submissions. We therefore advise you to obtain at least 20 submission pledges for the first year of the new PCI’s existence. These pledges can come from the recommenders themselves or, better still, from outsiders.

6) Submit your proposal to the PCI organisation for discussion and approval

The creation of a new PCI must be approved by the non-profit “Peer Community in” organisation. The members of the managing boards of the existing PCIs form the board of this organisation. Send your proposal (based at least on the answers to the questionnaire below) to contact[ at ]peercommunityin[ dot ]org for approval by the board of the PCI organisation.

7) Recruit more recommenders

Once the PCI has been validated and its website created, you should use the first group of recommenders to appoint more recommenders. Invitations to new recommenders and their registration should occur via the PCI website

8) Nominate a representative and set up a managing board

Once a certain predefined number of recommenders have been recruited (e.g. 100 or 200), a representative should be nominated among the co-managers of the PCI. The representative is the contact point and a member of the PCI organisation. The representative then appoints its managing board.

The managing board members are responsible for validating editorial decisions concerning the preprints submitted, approving the nomination of new recommenders, and dealing with potential problems arising between authors and the recommenders responsible for evaluating and/or recommending preprints (see the FAQ). The managing board must consist of five to 10 recommenders.

The rules about the managing board and representative mandates are available on the page https://peercommunityin.org/statutes-and-reports/

9) Open the PCI publicly: receive submissions and manage evaluations

Managing a submitted preprint – from its submission to its rejection or recommendation, excluding the evaluation by the recommender and the reviewers – takes about two hours, on average. The administrators decide how best to organise preprint management (shared between administrators, managing board members, recommenders, or others).

10) Communicate on the PCI

Social media communication can be helpful in the development of PCI. Recommendations can be posted on Mastodon, BlueSky, X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn… Hence, we advise you to appoint a social media manager among the people who will operate the PCI.

11) Find a managing editor

Managing submissions and their evaluation can be time-consuming according to the number of articles submitted (on average two hours per article). When your PCI starts receiving many articles, we strongly advise you to find a managing editor or set up a system among the board members to ensure all submissions are correctly handled.

Points 6, 7, 8, and 10 can be ordered differently.

Questionnaire to help proposers prepare their application and to help the PCI Association contextualize and assess the project

1) Define the proposed PCI

-Name of the PCI

-Scientific field(s) of the PCI. Please be specific. Please explain your choice.

2) Define the target community

-The estimated size of the international community in the field

-(Rough) number of preprints deposited per year in the field

-(Rough) number of articles published annually in the field

-(Rough) number of participants at major international conferences in the field

3) Define the proposed organisation

-Proposed co-managers* (who will represent and manage the new PCI), with their website or CV

-List of researchers (*) who have agreed to be part of the future managing board, with their website or CV

-List of researchers (*)who have agreed to be part of the future first recommenders (a list of at least 50 people is required), with their website or CV

-Are there recommenders from existing PCIs who could be recommenders for this PCI? How many?

4) Work for and help to the PCI

-How many hours per week will the co-managers be able to dedicate to developing and running their PCI during the 1st year? (minimum investment of 5 hours/week is required))

-Can you count on the help of volunteers to work for the new PCI (to communicate, go to congresses, invite recommenders, attract authors, etc.)?

-Can you obtain financial and symbolic support from scientific societies or other research institutions to help the functioning of your PCI? This is optional, but it can help cover the basic cost of a PCI which is about 10 K€/year. In any case, this cost will be supported by the PCI organisation.

-Do you have contacts with EiCs of journals who would agree to make their journals PCI-friendly?

5) First commitment to submit

-list of researchers(*) who commit to submitting at least one article to the PCI in the year following its opening. They can be part of the recommenders list, but this must be a list of > 20 researchers, independent from each other, i.e., not future co-authors for their submitted articles. Such a list would mark the probable success of the PCI.

*It is important that the co-managers, proposed managing board members, and proposed recommenders are:

– Internationally recognised

– Not predominantly French

– From a wide range of countries

– Roughly balanced in terms of gender

Proposers are welcome to present any evidence that these criteria are met. In addition, it may be useful to include links to professional webpages or Google Scholar profiles, or details such as present or past editorial responsibilities, and current positions (postdoc, assist prof, prof, etc.). These details may sound boring, but the success of a new PCI is linked to the reputation of the co-managers, first recommenders, and their ability to attract new recommenders, especially authors. In short, they must be trustworthy to the community.

Support

We can help you by providing extensive documentary resources about PCI, including short movies, and message templates for the invitation of co-managers and recommenders. If the creation of your PCI is accepted, we will provide you with a fully functional website (front and back office) and help you manage the first few preprints submitted.

Send any questions to contact[ at ]peercommunityin[ dot ]org