Should Authors be Requested to Suggest Peer Reviewers?

As part of a continuous process to explore the factors that might weaken or corrupt traditional peer review, in this paper, we query the ethics, fairness and validity of the request, by editors, of authors to suggest peer reviewers during the submission process. One of the reasons for the current cr...

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Published in:Science & Engineering Ethics Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 275 - 286
Main Authors: Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A., Al-Khatib, Aceil
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Feb2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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          Teixeira da Silva, Jaime A.
          Al-Khatib, Aceil
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          P. O. Box 7, Miki-cho post office, Ikenobe 3011-2, 761-0799, Kagawa-ken, Japan
          Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, 22110, Irbid, Jordan
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        Professional peer review
        Periodical editors
        Professional ethics
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        Publishing
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          Periodical editors
          Professional ethics
          Authors
          Publishing
      keyword:
        Compromised trust
        Flexible ethics
        Lax selection
        Open versus traditional peer review
        Rules
      ab: As part of a continuous process to explore the factors that might weaken or corrupt traditional peer review, in this paper, we query the ethics, fairness and validity of the request, by editors, of authors to suggest peer reviewers during the submission process. One of the reasons for the current crisis in science pertains to a loss in trust as a result of a flawed peer review which is by nature biased unless it is open peer review. As we indicate, the fact that some editors and journals rely on authors’ suggestions in terms of who should peer review their paper already instills a potential way to abuse the trust of the submission and publishing system. An author-suggested peer reviewer choice might also tempt authors to seek reviewers who might be more receptive or sympathetic to the authors’ message or results, and thus favor the outcome of that paper. Authors should thus not be placed in such a potentially ethically compromising situation, especially as a mandatory condition for submission. However, the fact that they do not have an opt-out choice during the submission process—especially when using an online submission system that makes such a suggestion compulsory—may constitute a violation of authors’ rights.
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    language: English
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