Journals with open-discussion forums are excellent educational resources for peer review training exercises

Abstract

Journals with open-discussion forums lend themselves well for peer review exercises to train early career scientists. Earth System Science Data (ESSD) is an open-access journal for the publication of interdisciplinary datasets and articles, and it is thus an example of an educational resource in the peer review process. We offer our experiences in peer review training with manuscripts submitted to ESSD, and we do so from the disparate perspectives of workshop instructor, student, and author. We then provide recommendations for the structure of a peer review workshop. We seek to promote the use of open-discussion forums, including ESSD, for educational purposes, as they can provide mutual benefits to trainees, authors, reviewers, and editors.