This year, to mark Peer Review Week, UCL Open: Environment sat down with Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Yasemin Aktas (UCL, London) for a brief conversation on Open Peer Review.

There seems to be a challenge in the scholarly community to secure a peer review, how do you select reviewers for each paper?

Expertise in the topic is key, although in a cross/interdisciplinary context such as the UCL O:E where submissions tend not to follow the conventions of singular scientific domains, it is increasingly less straightforward to identify key expertise needed for a healthy peer review. Luckily crossdisciplinarity is increasingly the norm in the academic world, and we are very lucky to have incredible scholars who can advise not only in the rigour of the submissions from the viewpoint of a single discipline but more widely.

Editors' role in dissecting the submissions to ensure all their scientific aspects are looked into, and their ability to synthesise the review reports to pass judgement on the submitted works' rigour as a whole beyond disciplinary boundaries is also a defining factor.

Can you explain one of the benefits of open peer review?

Peer-review is traditionally a complete black box, which happens behind the scenes between the authors, reviewers and editors, but is entirely obscure to everyone else. The community, academic or otherwise, who uses the paper must therefore postulate the authority and rigour of the peer review that led to the published, final version of an academic outcome, although the process is not visible and therefore cannot be put to test. During this process, the academic exchange is a monologue, rather than a lively and productive dialogue that is the basis of all scientific and academic growth.

Open peer-review makes the process transparent, empowering both reviewers and the authors to be more challenging and rigorous in their approaches. Equally importantly, the exchange becomes a public record underpinning the decision-making process for everyone else's scrutiny and learning.

It is clear that we need to change our understanding and ways of publishing for a more equitable and transparent academia. UCL Open Environment has been one of the pioneers of implementing open science principles and our reviewers' community is key to its success.

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