Reimagining peer review for a more open future for research
This talk was presented at the University of Manchester Open Research Conference, 9-10 June 2025.
As a significant step in eLife’s mission to transform research communication, we introduced a publishing model that eliminates the accept–reject decision after peer review and focuses instead on the public review and assessment of preprints. The outputs of the eLife Model are Reviewed Preprints that combine the openness of preprints with the scrutiny offered by peer review, providing a more transparent, faster and fairer way to publish new findings. The public reviews and eLife Assessments shared alongside Reviewed Preprints have been designed to help readers and other users easily assess the trustworthiness of new results. Additionally, the model allows us to involve more early-career researchers and those from groups traditionally underrepresented in science to participate in public review, sharing their expertise and perspectives with authors, readers and others who engage with preprints. In this session, we will provide an overview of the eLife Model, what we set out to achieve with it, feedback from the research community, and our next steps. This will be followed by an audience Q&A. We will also invite further discussions with anyone who is interested in hearing more about this open alternative to traditional publishing models.
ASSOCIATED LINKS
https://elifesciences.org/about/peer-review
https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/14e77604/elife-s-new-model-what-is-a?reviewed-preprint
https://elifesciences.org/inside-elife/db24dd46/elife-s-new-model-what-is-an?elife-assessment
