Can AI contribute to a fairer and more inclusive reviewer selection?

Peer Review Week is a globally recognised, collaborative event that celebrates the essential role of peer review in scholarly communication. Each year, this virtual event brings together researchers, institutions and organisations from around the world through a mixture of engaging activities such as webinars, interviews, podcasts and more.
As we join in the celebration, we would like to take a moment to extend our sincere thanks to all our reviewers and editors for their ongoing support and service. Your expertise and efforts are what help us maintain the high quality of research published in FEBS Open Bio.
This year’s theme, running from September 23rd to 27th, focuses on “Innovation and Technology in Peer Review” and while we appreciate that many conversations will gravitate towards advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automated systems, we would like to highlight another important aspect of innovation – enhancing reviewer selection to promote diversity and equal opportunities. There’s no doubt that recent technology has streamlined various stages of the review process, cutting down on editorial workload and helping us manage the challenges that come with the increasing volume of submissions. But can these innovations be applied to the selection of reviewers to create a fairer and more inclusive system?
There are several key practices that we, at FEBS Open Bio, use to increase diversity in peer review. From using reviewer databases and tracking demographic data, to allowing reviewers to nominate students under supervision, to giving reviewers the option for their contributions to be officially recognized, and to striving for a geographically and gender-diverse editorial board, we aim to broaden our reviewer pool and ensure that research is evaluated from a wide range of perspectives. Reducing bias and making evaluations as fair as possible is what ultimately leads to more robust and reliable science.
This approach is just one of the ways we can push for innovation and shape the peer-review process into a more equitable and forward-thinking one.
While it’s exciting to witness new methods being used to ease the editorial workload and improve efficiency, it’s just as important to consider how they can be harnessed to promote broader representation and fairness in peer review. After all, it’s about using these advancements to serve everyone and create more opportunities for all.
We’d like to hear your thoughts… How do you see the recent changes in peer review impacting you? What suggestions do you have for making peer review more inclusive? Which recent innovations in the field have excited you the most? Share your comments below and join the discussion!
To learn more about Peer Review Week and the programs for this year, please visit the official Peer Review Week page.
Happy Peer Review Week 😊
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