PCI-friendly journals

PCI Registered Reports (PCI RR) has a specific evaluation procedure, with a two-stage peer review process. It also has a specific list of PCI RR-friendly journals.

What are PCI-friendly journals?

• PCI-friendly journals have agreed to take the PCI evaluation into account in their own evaluation of articles.
• They endorse the PCI review criteria and agree to accept, without further peer review, any manuscript recommended by PCI.
• Or they clearly indicate to the authors, within a very short time frame, whether the article will be peer reviewed, accepted with no further peer review or rejected.
• Or they consider submissions of articles recommended by a PCI and they may use PCI reviews and recommendations for their own review processes, if appropriate.

What are the types of PCI-friendly journal?

PCI-friendly journals make three types of commitment concerning PCI assessments:

Journals committed to accepting PCI-recommended articles without further peer review:

• The journal endorses the PCI review criteria and agrees to accept, without further peer review, any manuscript obtaining a positive final recommendation from PCI while also meeting any additional procedural requirements that do not require further scientific evaluation by the journal. Such additional requirements could include falling within a defined disciplinary scope.
• Note that subjective judgments about the importance, novelty or timeliness of a research question are not relevant to the judgment of research quality at PCI and are not assessed as an additional requirement by the journal.
• The journal accepts PCI recommended articles for publication even if the reviews performed by PCI are anonymous.
• Similarly, the journal will not relitigate any scientific elements of the study that PCI has already approved.
• The journal agrees to display clearly, on the homepage of the article, a note indicating that the evaluation process was carried out by PCI of the following type:

Editor’s note: This article has been reviewed and recommended by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology: Mathieu Joron (2020) Studying genetic antagonisms as drivers of genome evolution. Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology, 100108. https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100108

• The name of the journal appears in our publicly available list of PCI friendly journals.

Journals providing authors with a fast response:

• These journals do not automatically accept PCI-recommended articles, but have agreed to the following commitment: once the article is submitted by the authors, the journal agrees to provide the authors with one of the following three responses, within a specified short turnaround time (e.g. 5 days):

1. Acceptance with minor modifications with no further peer-review,
2. Need for further peer-review before decision,
3. Not interested.

• In case of acceptance, the journal agrees to display clearly on the homepage of the article a note indicating that the evaluation process was carried out entirely or partly by PCI, of the following type:

Editors’ note: A previous version of this article was reviewed and recommended by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology: Mathieu Joron (2020) Studying genetic antagonisms as drivers of genome evolution. Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology, 100108. https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100108

• Once a journal becomes PCI-friendly, its name appears in our public list of journal adopters.

Journals committed to using PCI evaluations if appropriate:

• The journals do not automatically accept PCI-recommended articles but have agreed to the following commitment: The journals will consider submissions of articles recommended by a PCI and they may use PCI reviews and recommendations for their own review processes, if appropriate.
• In case of acceptance, the journal agrees to display clearly on the homepage of the article a note indicating that the evaluation process was carried out entirely or partly by PCI, of the following type:

Editors’ note: A previous version of this article was reviewed and recommended by Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology: Mathieu Joron (2020) Studying genetic antagonisms as drivers of genome evolution. Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology, 100108. https://doi.org/10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100108

• Once a journal becomes PCI-friendly, its name appears in our public list of journal adopters.

How does it work?

• After a recommendation, authors may choose the Peer Community Journal, any PCI-friendly journal (see below), another journal, or no journal, if they prefer the article to be hosted solely on their preferred preprint server or on an open repository. 
• If the authors choose to submit their article to a PCI-friendly journal committed to accepting PCI recommended articles, the article will be accepted without further peer review, provided that the subject and type of article fall within the scope of the journal. The journal may ask for minor modifications of format.
• If the authors choose to submit their article to a PCI-friendly journal committed to providing the authors with a fast answer, they will receive a rapid response, generally within five days, indicating whether the journal is interested, whether additional reviews are needed or whether the article is accepted with minor modifications. Following this response, the authors may decide to withdraw their article and to submit it to another journal.
• If the authors choose to submit their article to a PCI-friendly journal committed to use the PCI evaluation if appropriate, then the journal may or may not use the PCI evaluation. 
• The authors can successively submit their article to as many PCI-friendly journals as they choose. They can choose to submit their article to the Peer Community Journal at any time.

What are the advantages for authors?

• Authors have a better chance of publishing their article in a journal that does not request additional peer review.
• Authors ultimately have not only a publication in a journal, but also a transparent evaluation process and a recommendation text clearly associated with their article.
• At the end of the recommendation process, authors remain free to stick to a PCI-recommended preprint, submit to the Peer Community Journal, to any PCI-friendly journal or to any other journal.
• Authors can (successively and rapidly) submit their article to various journals on the basis of the same evaluation (hence, avoiding delays caused by new rounds of peer review).

What are the advantages for PCI-friendly journals?

• PCI becomes a true support for their journals
• Journals can obtain better assessments more rapidly
• Journals can increase their number of submissions with high quality articles

What are the advantages for recommenders and reviewers?

• Their work is more visible (and thus better recognized) because it will be clearly displayed by PCI-friendly journals.
• Their evaluation is more useful for authors who wish to publish their recommended preprints.
• Recommenders who are editors for PCI-friendly journals can provide a more direct route to their journal, without the need of duplication of the peer review process.
• Recommenders can pick interesting preprints for the journal for which they are associate editors, strengthening their involvement in their journal.

Are there PCI-unfriendly journals?

A few journals informed us that they will not consider submissions of articles recommended by a PCI:

• Journal of Animal Science
• Journal of Insect Science
• Proceedings of the Royal Society B
• Virus Evolution

Why are there PCI-friendly journals?

Because the service PCI provides is not complete:

– Lack of visibility: Preprints recommended by PCI do not appear as peer reviewed and recommended in many preprint servers (including bioRxiv), or in Google Scholar search results .

– Lack of indexation: Preprints recommended by PCI are not indexed in the best-known databases (WoS, PubMed, Scopus, DOAJ), that only reference articles published in journals.

→ We will continue our efforts to have PCI-recommended preprints recognized as peer reviewed articles of high quality, in the same way as articles  published in journals.

While awaiting this recognition (which is not guaranteed and will necessarily take time), we propose to help authors publish their articles in journals if they so choose.

Isn’t it a paradox to recommend preprints and to have relationships with journals?

PCI’s goal is to promote preprints and recommended preprints, and their recognition as being of equivalent value to the best articles published in journals. However, authors currently need to publish in journals (for evaluation reasons, visibility and indexation) and this situation is likely to persist for the foreseeable future. Whilst it remains necessary to publish articles in journals, PCI will help authors to publish their recommended preprints in journals with compatible characteristics (not-for-profit, diamond open-access, learned society or research institution journals).

Can I still submit my PCI-recommended article to the journal of my choice?

Yes, the author of a PCI-recommended article can do whatever they want with their article: leave it in the preprint server/open repository, submit it to one of the PCI-friendly journals, to Peer Community Journal or to any other journal.

What are the main benefits of PCI for my journal?

PCI benefits all stakeholders. We expect the initiative to be popular with authors because of the rigor and transparency of the review process, the track record of our Managing Board and recommenders, and the fact that a single PCI review process will provide authors with a gateway to a wide range of reputable PCI-friendly journals. With PCI becoming a clearing house for preprint submissions, PCI-friendly journals will, in turn, benefit from the opportunity to publish high-quality preprints transparently reviewed according to rigorous standards by scientists and editors who are at the forefront of the initiative, at no additional cost.

PCI-friendly journals:

• Can receive articles that have already been evaluated, at no additional cost.
• Have access to a pool of preprints that their associate editors (who are recommenders in PCI) can “drive” for publication in their journal.
• May become more attractive to authors than other journals.
• Can display a transparent editorial process with no change in their evaluation procedure.

If a recommended preprint is published in my journal, will it also be published by PCI?

No. PCI itself publishes only the recommendation (PCI editorial decision) and reviews (signed or anonymous). 

As the articles recommended by PCI remain on preprint servers (e.g., arXiv, bioRXiv, Zenodo) during the whole PCI process, they will fall within the terms of your journal’s preprint policy and will not constitute dual publication. Each accepted preprint can therefore be published in no more than one peer reviewed journal. 

At what stage in the PCI process would authors submit a preprint to a PCI-friendly journal?

The authors can choose to submit their article to a PCI-friendly journal only once the PCI recommendation process is over (recommendation published on the PCI website).

Are you suggesting that the PCI track replaces my journal’s internal track?

No. A PCI-friendly journal can continue to offer both internal and PCI tracks.

Is there a subscription fee for becoming a PCI-friendly journal?

No. Becoming PCI-friendly is free-of-charge.

Can a PCI-friendly journal still charge an APC or any other fee?

Yes. Journals are free to charge such fees if they wish. Authors who receive a recommendation are free to choose to publish in Peer Community Journal, to submit to any PCI-friendly journals, to choose other journals or to keep their preprint on the preprint server; PCI thus creates an open market.

What is the complete set of requirements for becoming a PCI-friendly journal committed to accepting PCI recommended articles?

To become a PCI-friendly journal committed to accepting PCI recommended articles without further peer review, a journal should have the following features:

• to have a preprint-compatible submission policy
• to commit to accept the judgement of the PCI Managing Board and recommenders (in consultation with specialist reviewers) concerning the fulfillment of PCI review criteria
• to commit to accept PCI judgements without the need for additional peer review
• to commit to accept PCI judgements based on anonymous reviews, without asking to disclose the reviewers’ identity.

The journals can set additional requirements that go beyond PCI requirements, specifically concerning:

• Compatibility with the disciplinary scope of the journal
• Complying with journal requirements concerning formatting and word counts
• Payment of any applicable APCs or other fees (e.g. submission fees, page charges, color figure charges, etc.)

When would a journal prefer to become a PCI-friendly journal committed to providing the authors with a fast response rather than accepting PCI recommended preprints with no further peer review?

A journal may prefer to be listed as providing the authors with a fast response if it wishes to reserve the right to perform additional peer reviews of preprints recommended by PCI. For example, the journal may wish to determine the publishability of a preprint by applying additional review criteria not assessed by PCI, or the journal may wish to perform its own scientific evaluation of the existing PCI review criteria.

When would a journal prefer to become a PCI-friendly journal committed to accepting PCI recommended preprints with no further peer review rather than providing the authors with a fast response?

A journal may choose to commit to accept PCI recommended preprints with no further peer review if it agrees with PCI policies and seeks to maximise opportunities for publishing articles recommended by PCI. If a large array of such journals is available, other journals may be less attractive to authors because of the likelihood of having to undergo further peer review on top of the already-intensive PCI review process, and the lower certainty of publication relative to a journal committed to accepting PCI recommended articles.

Would my journal need to adopt a general open review policy to become committed to accepting PCI recommended articles with no further peer-review?

No. PCI does not interfere with journal policies. If your journal has a closed review process, there is no need to change your journal policies, provided that you are happy for preprints submitted to your journal via the PCI track to have open review histories. Any preprint submitted via the PCI track will contain an URL to the reviews at PCI, which are published with a DOI, so your journal does not need to create an infrastructure for supporting open review.

What additional infrastructure do I need to establish in my journal to become PCI-friendly?

None. Authors submit to a journal only after they have obtained PCI recommendation, so the entire PCI review process is governed externally to the journal. Authors can therefore submit a preprint to your journal via the journal’s existing infrastructure.

Can a PCI-friendly journal committed to providing authors with fast answers obtain the identity of an anonymous reviewer?

Yes. For reviewers choosing to remain anonymous, PCI will ask permission from the reviewers for their names to be passed on confidentially to the PCI-friendly journals publishing the articles concerned.

Note that this does not apply to journals committed to accepting PCI recommended articles, because these journals agree to publish articles recommended by a PCI, whoever the reviewers may be.

Can members of my editorial board (including the Editor-in-Chief) also serve as PCI recommenders?

Yes. We welcome such proposals, which further strengthen the expertise of the growing PCI community. Interested applicants are invited to contact us at contact@peercommunityin.org. All applications are considered on a case-by-case basis by the Managing Boards of the corresponding PCIs.

How will PCI-friendly journals appear on the PCI web site?

The list of PCI-friendly journals will be arranged in a tabular format, with one entry per journal. Separate fields will provide the following information:

• Journal name
• Commitment concerning PCI Evaluation
• Submission procedure (contact name and address of the journal’s editor(s) responsible for handling the submission of preprints recommended by PCI)
• Owner type (society journal, research institute journal, publisher)
• Publisher type (for profit, non for profit)
• Economic model (subscription based, Diamond OA, APC-based OA, Hybrid, P2O)

How financially sustainable is the PCI model?

The PCI initiative is funded by a distributed network of European universities, institutions and learned societies (see here for a complete list). The operating costs of the initiative are very low (see a cost breakdown here) and the distributed model makes it both highly sustainable and resilient to the potential loss of any individual funder.

Can a journal be PCI-friendly with only some PCIs?

No (except PCI-RR, which is very specific). When a journal agrees to become a PCI-friendly journal, it commits to considering all recommended preprints in the same way regardless of the PCI recommending the preprint. However, a PCI-friendly journal always has the option to reject a recommended preprint that does not fall within its disciplinary scope or does not comply with journal requirements concerning formatting and word count.

Is Peer Community Journal a threat to my journal?

No, there is room for everyone. PCI-friendly journals are long-term established journals, with specific editorial policies and with specific communities of researchers seeking to publish in them. A scientist used to publishing in a learned society journal, for example, is likely to continue to submit to this journal as a first choice.