About Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

Summary

Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology (PCI Evol Biol) has been launched in January 2017. It is a community of recommenders playing the role of editors who recommend unpublished articles based on peer-reviews to make them complete, reliable and citable articles, without the need for publication in ‘traditional’ journals. Evaluation and recommendation by PCI Evol Biol are free of charge. When a recommender decides to recommend an article, he/she writes a recommendation text that is published along with all the editorial correspondence (reviews, recommender's decisions, authors’ replies) by PCI Evol Biol. The article itself is not published by PCI Evol Biol; it remains in the preprint server where it has been posted by the authors. PCI Evol Biol recommenders can also recommend, but to a lesser extent, postprints.

PCI Evol Biol is a community of the parent project Peer Community In, an original idea of Denis Bourguet, Benoit Facon and Thomas Guillemaud.
PCI Evol Biol 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 article to a traditional journal, but this is not the goal of PCI Evol Biol.
PCI Evol Biol 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PCI Evol Biol is transparent: Reviews and recommendations (for unpublished articles) and recommendations (for published articles) are freely available for consultation. Recommendations are signed by the recommenders. Reviews may also be signed if the reviewers agree to do so.
PCI Evol Biol 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.

Evaluation model

Which manuscripts can be recommended?

PCI Evol Biol will evaluate preprints, and to a lesser extent postprints, dealing with all fields of Evolutionary Biology and in particular with these subjects: Adaptation, Behavior & Social Evolution, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, Evo-Devo, Evolutionary Applications, Evolutionary Dynamics, Evolutionary Ecology, Evolutionary Epidemiology, Evolutionary Theory, Experimental Evolution, Expression Studies, Genetic conflicts, Genome Evolution, Genotype-Phenotype, Human Evolution, Hybridization / Introgression, Life History, Macroevolution, Molecular Evolution, Morphological Evolution, Non Genetic Inheritance, Paleontology, Phenotypic Plasticity, Phylogenetics / Phylogenomics, Phylogeography & Biogeography, Population Genetics / Genomics, Quantitative Genetics, Reproduction and Sex, Sexual Selection, Speciation, Species interactions, Systematics / Taxonomy.

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 article to add a cover page to their article and a sentence at the beginning of the abstract stating that their article has been recommended by PCI Evol Biol.

PCI Evol Biol welcomes anonymous submissions and submissions of preregistrations.

Editorial Criteria

PCI Evol Biol recommends preprints addressing evolutionary questions about all types of organisms. We cover all fields of biology, provided that the context of the study and the key question addressed relate to evolution. The preprint must not be published or under consideration for evaluation elsewhere at the time of its submission to PCI Evol Biol.

The preprints recommended may describe empirical or theoretical studies, and be based on observations from experiments or nature, or previously acquired data. They may also report the results of verbal, computer or mathematical models. Studies of methodologies for evolutionary biology are also appreciated. Perspectives, reviews and opinions, as well as comments on previously published articles are also welcome.

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

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 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 Evol Biol does not guarantee the evaluation or recommendation of all submitted preprints. Only preprints considered interesting by at least one competent recommender (equivalent to an associate editor in a classical journal) will be peer-reviewed. The interest of the preprint, as determined by the recommender, can relate to its context, the scientific question addressed, the methodology, or the results. PCI Evol Biol has a large number of recommenders, ensuring a considerable diversity of interests. The recommendations published by PCI Evol Biol 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

Guillaume Achaz (Paris, MNHN, ISyEB, France)
Juan Arroyo (Seville, University of Seville, Spain)
Denis Bourguet (Montpellier, CBGP, France)
Marianne Elias (Paris, MNHN, ISEB, France)
Benoît Facon (La Réunion, PVBMT, France)
Tatiana Giraud (Orsay, ESE, France)
Thomas Guillemaud (Sophia Antipolis, ISA, France)
Ruth Hufbauer (Fort Collins, Colorado S. Univ., USA)
Caroline Nieberding (UCLouvain, Belgium)

Read more about Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology.