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May 02, 2023

Stop the peer

Amber Dance is a freelance science journalist in the Los Angeles area.

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In November 2022, health economist Chris Sampson found himself in desperate need of a hero. As associate editor for Frontiers in Health Services, he’d been trying to get a paper reviewed since April. He’d sent out about 150 invitations to potential reviewers and received four reviews, but only one of sufficient quality to be useful. Sampson, who works at the Office of Health Economics, a research and consultancy company based in London, needed two more good reviews, so he tweeted: "I need a #peerreview hero … Heroes, DM me."

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Nature 614, 581-583 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00403-8

Publons. 2018 Global State of Peer Review (Publons, 2018).

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Hayes, M. & Hardcastle, J. Grant Review in Focus. (Publons, 2019).

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Carneiro, C. F. D. et al. BMC Res. Integrity Peer Rev. 5, 16 (2020).

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