Peer Review Capacity: A People challenge

As Peer Review Week shines a spotlight on this year's theme, "Peer Review Capacity: Volume, Speed and Quality", much of the conversation will rightly focus on reviewers and reviewer capacity. 

How can we reduce reviewer fatigue? How can we maintain quality in reviewer outputs as the volume increases? How can we bring in more pace to the reviewer process to better meet demand? 

These are important questions, but from a talent perspective, we believe there's another conversation the industry should be having. Because behind every manuscript that moves efficiently through peer review, every editor who secures expert feedback, and every journal that maintains high standards at scale, there's a team of publishing professionals making it happen. And, this week, we want to remind our readers that they deserve the spotlight too, all year round!  

The Hidden Infrastructure of Scholarly Publishing

When people think about careers in scholarly publishing, they often think of editors. Less visible are the professionals responsible for keeping peer review systems functioning effectively:

• Peer Review Managers
• Editorial Operations Specialists
• Research Integrity Professionals
• Editorial Coordinators
• Publishing Systems and Workflow Experts

These are all roles that we proudly work on at Inspired, and are in the privileged position of meeting the brilliant people who build reviewer communities, improve workflows, solve bottlenecks, support editors, manage complex ethical issues, and help ensure quality is maintained under increasing pressure. In many ways, they are the hidden infrastructure of scholarly publishing. When things are working well, you barely notice them. When they're not, everyone notices.

Volume, Speed and Quality: The Impossible Triangle?

The challenge facing publishers is clear, submission volumes continue to increase, authors expect faster decisions and at the same time, integrity checks and compliance checks are more demanding than ever, costs are going up, and scrutiny around quality is on the rise. 

The industry is being asked to deliver more, deliver it faster, and maintain the highest standards and we know that many teams around the scholarly publishing community are asking themselves how this will be achieved in a sustainable way. Technology will undoubtedly play a role with AI at centre stage.  We are seeing some truly innovative products enter the market but they don't replace the need for skilled people because capacity is not simply a function of systems, it is a function of expertise. The technology may go some way to protect the human attention for the work that matters most, and be very effective in doing so, but with the volume of work that matters increasing at such scale, the need for knowledgeable, curious, human minds remains paramount. 

You Can't Build Capacity Without Investing in People

In our own discussions around recruitment, we often observe organisations focus on process before capability. The conversation starts with workflow improvements, technology upgrades or operational efficiencies.

Yet the most successful teams are usually those that have invested in the right people first. So if you are currently looking at improving workflows our top advice would be to look at the following first:

Have you got a team of people who understand peer review? 

Do these people understand researchers? 

Can your team balance operational excellence with good judgement?

Have you got a proactive team who can  spot potential issues before they become serious problems? 

If you are operating a lean editorial team, is there a culture of agility, getting 'hands on' when necessary with any urgent tasks that need attention? 

A Career Path Worth Celebrating

In today's environment, peer review professionals are helping publishers navigate some of the most important challenges facing research communication. In fact, one of the most encouraging developments we've seen over the last decade is the professionalisation of peer review careers.

These roles have grown in strategic importance and complexity. They offer opportunities to develop expertise in operations, technology, stakeholder management, community building, research integrity and leadership. For those looking to build meaningful careers in scholarly publishing, peer review and editorial operations offer the chance to make a genuine impact on the quality and credibility of research worldwide. 

This is not to be underestimated and for anyone developing their career in this field, or leading a peer review team, it's important to recognise that whatever level you are on the company org chart, what you're doing has the potential for some real leadership in its own right. Read more about landing your first leadership role without experience here

The Future of Peer Review Depends on Its People

This Peer Review Week, let's celebrate reviewers but let's also celebrate the professionals behind the scenes who make peer review possible. Sustainable peer review capacity may be enabled by new technologies but at it's core, is a people challenge and investing in those people may be one of the most important investments an academic or scholarly publisher can make.