Platform for Responsible Editorial Policies (PREP)

PREP is an online platform contributing to the responsible organisation of editorial procedures by scholarly journals. It facilitates journal editors to become transparent about their editorial procedures, advises journal editors and publishers on potential improvements of their peer review procedures, and presents integrated information about the variety of review procedures currently in use. PREP also maintains a database of journals’ current peer review formats and provides information and tools for journals to use journal metrics in a responsible way.

PREP promotes responsible editorial policies for research journals with evidence-informed advice to editors and publishers. There is a general concern about the effectiveness, quality and transparency of the journal peer review system. For decades, several studies have suggested that the peer review system is slow, ineffective, inconsistent and non-transparent. In response, some key players in scientific publishing have expressed their willingness to address these issues, but they encounter a lack of convincing information to warrant editorial policy changes. In addition, scholars studying scientific publishing have expressed worries about the opaqueness of editorial policies, hindering further research on peer review.

PREP was established to address exactly these concerns. In cooperation with publishing professionals, PREP also aligns with the growing movement towards more transparency and openness in science. In addition, PREP contributes to responsible practices for evaluating journals, following a recent call for more pluralistic approaches to journal assessment.

We offer:

• A database documenting journals’ current editorial procedures.
• A simple questionnaire that allows editors to characterize their current procedures and that allows us to provide suggestions for potential improvements.
• An overview of current review procedures and knowledge about their strengths and weaknesses.
• Suggestions on how to improve the transparency of editorial policies.

With these features, we hope to contribute to more transparency of editorial policies and support editors with suggestions on potential editorial improvements. Through the database, we provide a resource for research on peer review.