Amid high profits and falling wages, peer reviewers must be paid

Academics are increasingly prioritising work-life balance. Peer review is one of the first commitments they drop, say Davor Pavlovic and Rebekah Gundry

Published on
February 17, 2024
Last updated
February 19, 2024
Davor Pavlovic Rebekah Gundry
Illustration: the pearly gates of heaven
Source: serpeblu-istock

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Reader's comments (10)

#1 Submitted by k.s.... on February 17, 2024 - 1:00am
Yep it is time for change I am also fed up being asked to do a minimum of 3 days work on a PhD for £150 !! While managers are getting overpaid and holding back on giving academics decent pay rises. Why should you accept a measly £150 for 3 days work all you are doing is helping to increase managers pays and bureaucratic bloat.
#2 Submitted by joanne.... on February 17, 2024 - 6:15am
"Academics are increasingly prioritising work-life balance", so let's pay them not to? I'd be more than happy to get paid, and more than happy for journals to explore more open peer reviews. But let's go back to the bit about improving work-life balance. I'd definitely be up for some of that.
#3 Submitted by a.russell_1 on February 17, 2024 - 10:13am
It needs to be accounted for somewhere. Either the journal should pay for the service or it is formally part of an academic job and your employer should expect you to do a certain numbers of reviews a year. Without either of these it becomes a hobby.
#4 Submitted by i.... on February 19, 2024 - 2:56pm
My employer does expect me to review as part of my job. It is listed as a duty in my job description. I am allocated a certain amount of time for it each year, and who you review for forms part of your performance appraisal and even promotion case.
#5 Submitted by d.j.... on February 17, 2024 - 10:24am
Paying for reviews might not be popular with unis. Consider uni pays academic salary for teaching, research, admin, community-work including reviewing expected as part of the job. Now when reviewers are paid, effectively double pay. Can see some people prioritising reviews over T&R not easy to monitor, police or enforce policy if the arrangement is between the publisher and academic rather than the institution. Better solution might be found in model used by some UK research councils. Institution is given amount based on nr of reviews completed by its staff. This sum is then included in a staff fund that academics can draw on to cover items such as travel, fees , equipment etc.
#6 Submitted by dranjumsjohn on February 21, 2024 - 1:07am
This seems a good way out. Payments for review are welcome but as you so rightly mention, they can be monitored only with difficulty. Another alternative is to use " private" reviewers of high academic standing, recent retirees, etc for the review process. A third would be to go on a trust basis and ask " if you want to be paid per review and if yes, how much". As always every newly introduced strategy should be monitored and evaluated. Which means an evaluation and monitoring system should be put in place before introducing pay per review activities. Eve
#7 Submitted by graff.... on February 17, 2024 - 6:49pm
Outside of medicine, who specifically is going to pay? Open the doors and windows of your silos. Its "only" 2024
#8 Submitted by i.... on February 19, 2024 - 3:01pm
If academics are rethinking their work life balance, and therefore choosing to do fewer reviews, how does paying help? Is the idea that they use the payment to purchase more time in their lives? More hours in the day? The alternative is that either you encourage then not to value work life balance do much (which would seem regressive), or that you encourage them to value reviewing over the work their primary employer is paying them to do - the teaching and research (lets be honest, it'll be the teaching) that is the core part of an academics job.
#9 Submitted by k9srule on February 26, 2024 - 1:29pm
Your established journal is too focused on publishing high-quality manuscripts to pay their reviewers? Curious reasoning. The reverse would make more sense. "As editors ourselves, we cannot imagine that established journals will be tempted to use such services, because our priority is to publish high-quality manuscripts. "
#10 Submitted by k9srule on February 26, 2024 - 1:32pm
I believe the service you are referencing is ScholarProVetting.com.

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