Professionalising peer reviewers: maturation of an old idea

The model of academic peer review, which relies on volunteer reviewers and has no official conventions, faces numerous challenges, including reviewer bias, insufficient incentives and the burdensome nature of the task. To address these issues, the present essay delves into the idea of financially compensating reviewers, up to the transformative model that involves their complete professionalisation. Certified full-time reviewers would be employed within research institutions and directly invited by publishers to evaluate submissions, possibly with no further involvement of active researchers. This new paradigm aims to enhance the quality, consistency and efficiency of manuscript assessments through the creation of a corporation with its own curricula, standards and official regulations. The essay covers how the proposed model could reduce conflicts of interest, alleviate researchers’ workload and improve peer review integrity and accountability and discusses the economic impact of such changes. A description of various scenarios that would differently involve professional referees, alone or in cohabitation with academic reviewers, and a tentative mathematisation of the ratio of the number of professional referees to publishing scientists support the discussion. The importance of continuing education for peer reviewers who should stay connected to conceptual and technical advances is also discussed as well as questions regarding the implementation and funding of this new system.