Participating journals
The following STM publishers are participating in the PEER project:
BMJ Publishing Group; Cambridge University Press; EDP Sciences; Elsevier; IOP Publishing; Nature Publishing Group; Oxford University Press; Portland Press; Sage Publications; Springer; Taylor & Francis Group; Wiley-Blackwell
Selection process for participating journals
Statements from the research teams regarding the journal selection for PEER
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Selection process of participating journals:
The core group of the journals participating in PEER were selected from a starting list of journals with a Thomson Reuters JCR Impact Factor and >20% EU content (‘EU content’ is defined as having at least one author from an EU country). In each of the four broad subject disciplines (life sciences, medicine, physical sciences and social sciences & humanities), the listing was divided into tertiles* based on 2 year Impact Factors. Publishers then selected a spread of tier 1,2 & 3 journals, where tier 1 journals have the highest Impact Factors. For one publisher, this selection process was random, while others had to make more pragmatic selections.
Additional or substituted titles arose from a number of factors including:
- Technical issues (production systems not compatible with PEER submission requirements)
- Decision to include or exclude certain society titles
- Non-Impact Factor journal but anticipated high % EU content
- Non-Impact Factor journal, but adding an interesting subject field
- Non-Impact Factor journal, but providing non-English content
- Matching with non-participating ‘compare and contrast’ titles for the project
The outcome:
Overall, the largest group of participating journals are the top ‘tertile 1’ level as measured by 2 year Impact Factors, followed by tertile 2, then 3, then journals currently without an Impact Factor. On average, the participating journals are expected to have >40% EU content.
* tertile = one third of the overall group
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Statements from the research teams regarding the journal selection for PEER:
PEER Behavioural Research: Department of Information Science and LISU at Loughborough University, UK
‘The journals included in the PEER Project have provided us with a good range of authors and researchers as participants for the behavioural research.’
PEER Usage Research: CIBER group at University College London, UK
"CIBER is satisfied that the pragmatic basis for selecting journal titles for participation in the PEER study is entirely reasonable and appropriate."