Introducing the Publishing Lab

Your chance to help shape the future of reviewing!

Back in 2012, Elsevier issued the Peer Review Challenge: a community-wide competition that revolved around the simple but pertinent question “what can we do to acknowledge your peer review activities?”. Then Associate Professor Simon Goslingopens in new tab/window at the University of Nottingham accepted the challenge and delivered the ultimately winning ideaopens in new tab/window: introduce a system of “Elsevier badges” for reviewers which would represent different levels of acknowledgment and benefits. He was feted as the winner of the Challenge, and two years later he saw his idea brought to life in what we now know as the reviewer recognition platform .

The reviewer recognition platform builds on Professor Gosling’s idea and serves tens of thousands of reviewers each year, offering them well-deserved acknowledgments, personalized reviewer statistics and plenty more besides. As such, the platform is a true example of a community-driven innovation born of a powerful synergy. It’s also something we are keen to repeat. As a global information analytics business, Elsevier has plenty of experience in solving problems. To do so, however, we need feedback from the communities we serve in order to know for sure that we’re creating solutions to real problems – and building them in a way that the community in question will see real benefits. You are ultimately the beneficiaries of these tools and are therefore best placed to assess, validate and help improve our efforts. Collaboration is therefore crucial for us to make sure we are developing things that are indeed solving an existing problem and that we focus on developing the most appropriate solutions.

Enter the Elsevier Publishing Lab. This lab is a both a means of informing researchers about the innovations we are cooking up, as well as a platform where researchers (be they reviewers, authors, or editors) can truly become a part of the solution. What’s not to like? We benefit from receiving valuable feedback from the research community that we serve, while you get to jump onboard and help to determine which direction, speed and track we should take. A chance to shape the future of publishing if you will!

Don’t be concerned that registering will mean you are flooded with interview or survey requests all of a sudden. For one thing we are creating an extensive database of researchers to choose from, and for another, we will also be very selective in sending invitations and only ask researchers that most closely fit the profile for the idea we are testing. And of course, we understand that researchers are on a (very) tight schedule: there is always the option to reschedule the invitation or simply decline.

So, all those frustrations/observations/ideas that you’ve been harbouring about how reviewing could be better – share them with us! We can’t promise to build something from every idea but what we can do is to commit to listening to everything you have to say and welcoming you as a vital partner in the development of the future of reviewing. Interested in getting involved? Check out the Elsevier Publishing Lab website and have your say.

We look forward collaborating with you!