Caveat pre-emptor: Contextualising peer review and publication

Abstract

PLOS journals are today launching optional published peer review, in which authors can elect to publish, alongside their papers, the decision letters, reviewer comments, and their own responses. We at PLOS Biology feel this is great news; opening up peer review is a natural progression in the movement that recognizes both the utility and moral mandate for open access publication and for making both data and code as well as unique research materials available. Publishing the reviews will provide important context for decisions and help others interpret the research. For a small subset of papers, however, we’re finding that the route to publication can benefit from some very special additional treatment. For these particular manuscripts, it is clear that the claims are potentially intriguing and important, but the reviewers’ comments indicate that simple publication might lead to misunderstanding or misinterpretation. We believe that such cases benefit from contextualised publication with an Editor’s Note on the article and an accompanying Primer in which the Academic Editor carefully guides the reader, dissects the study, and lays out the thinking behind the decision to publish.