About Peer Community in Animal Science

Summary

Peer Community in Animal Science (PCI Animal Science) is a community of researchers working in Animal Science who peer-review and recommend unpublished preprints publicly available from open archives such as HAL, Zenodo, arXiv, OSF-preprints, and bioRxiv. The peer review process of PCI Animal Science is very similar to that of conventional journals, except that it is totally transparent. Papers recommended by PCI Animal Science are finalized, peer-reviewed articles that can be used and cited, like any other article published in a conventional journal. A recommended paper by PCI Animal Science is a reliable and high quality manuscript that does not need to be published in conventional journals, although further submission in a journal may be possible.

Evaluation and recommendation by PCI Animal Science are free of charge. When an editor decides to recommend a preprint, he/she writes a recommendation text that is published along with all the editorial correspondence (reviews, editor's decisions, authors’ replies) by PCI Animal Science. The preprint itself is not published by PCI Animal Science; it remains in the preprint server where it has been posted by the authors.

PCI Animal Science is under the umbrella of the parent project Peer Community In, an original idea of Denis Bourguet, Benoit Facon and Thomas Guillemaud.
PCI Animal Science is not designed to be a free peer-reviewing service for authors aiming to improve their articles before submission to a journal. It is, of course, possible, for authors to then submit their recommended preprint to a traditional journal, but this is not the goal of PCI Animal Science.
PCI Animal Science is stimulating: it recommends remarkable articles.
PCI Animal Science is free: there are no fees associated with the evaluation process, and no charge for access to the comments and recommendations. The website is freely accessible.
PCI Animal Science is transparent: Reviews and recommendations for preprints are freely available for consultation. Recommendations are signed by the editors. Reviews may also be signed if the reviewers agree to do so.
PCI Animal Science is not exclusive: An article may be recommended by different Peer Communities in X (a feature of particular interest for articles relating to multidisciplinary studies) and may even be published in a traditional journal (although this is not the goal of PCI Animal Science).

Evaluation model

Which manuscripts can be recommended by PCI Animal Science?

PCI Animal Science will recommend preprints from a wide range of research areas applied to animal science: animal genetics, breeding, growth, reproduction, nutrition, physiology, epidemiology, disease ecology, neurobiology, microbiology, behaviour, welfare, ethics, health, management and production systems, precision livestock farming and veterinary science. PCI Animal Science covers research primarily on domestic animals including mammalian and avian species, fish and insects (for feeding purposes but also as reservoir of transmissible pathogens). Research using laboratory animals, in vitro as well as animal models of human health diseases might also be considered.

The articles recommended may have diverse formats: reviews, comments, opinion papers, research articles, data papers, technical notes, computer notes, movies, etc. No editing, formatting or proofing of the recommended papers is required. We only ask the authors of recommended preprints to add a cover page to their preprint and a sentence at the beginning of the abstract stating that their preprint has been recommended by PCI Animal Science.

Editorial Criteria

PCI Animal Science recommends preprints in animal science. The preprint must not be published or under consideration for evaluation elsewhere at the time of its submission to PCI Animal Science.

The preprints recommended may describe empirical or theoretical studies. They may also report the results of verbal, computer or mathematical models. Perspectives, reviews and opinions, as well as comments on previously published articles are also welcome.

PCI Animal Science recommends only preprints of high scientific quality that are methodologically and ethically sound. To this end, PCI Animal Science:

Requires data, computer codes and mathematical and statistical analysis scripts to be made available to reviewers and recommenders at the time of submission and to readers after recommendation.
Welcomes reproductions of studies. Welcomes preregistration submissions and preprint submissions based on preregistrations (whether or not reviewed).
Welcomes preprints reporting negative results, provided that the questions addressed and the methodology used are sound.
Does not accept submissions of preprints presenting financial conflicts of interest. Other conflicts of interest must be minimal and declared.
Ensures that, as far as possible, the reviewers and referees have no conflict of interest with the content or authors of the study being evaluated.

PCI Animal Science does not guarantee the evaluation or recommendation of all submitted preprints. Only preprints considered interesting by at least one competent PCI editor (equivalent to an associate editor in a classical journal) will be peer-reviewed. The interest of the preprint, as determined by the editor, can relate to its context, the scientific question addressed, the methodology, or the results. PCI Animal Science has a large number of editors, ensuring a considerable diversity of interests. The recommendations published by PCI Animal Science are designed to draw the attention of the research community to the qualities of the article, including the subjective reasons for the recommender’s interest in it.

PReF

Sciety uses the PReF (preprint review features) descriptors to describe key elements of each Group's evaluation activities, helping readers to interpret and compare their evaluations. Learn more.

Review requested by: Authors
Reviewer selected by: Editor, service, or community
Public interaction: No
Inclusion of author response: Yes
Decision: Binary decision
Review coverage: Complete paper
Reviewer identity known to: Editor or service
Competing interests: Checked

People

Mohammed Gagaoua (Teagasc, Ireland)
Matthias Hess (University of California, Davis, USA)
Birte Nielsen (INRAE, France)
Elise Norberg (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway)
Matti Pastell (Luke, Finland)
Luis O. Tedeschi (Texas A&M University, USA)
Paolo Trevisi (University of Bologna, Italy)
Isabelle Veissier (INRAE, France)
Administrator: Rafael Muñoz-Tamayo (INRAE, France)

Read more about Peer Community in Animal Science.