Changing Sci from Post-Publication Peer-Review to Single-Blind Peer-Review

Sci was launched in 2018 [1] as an innovative journal based on a model of public post-publication peer-review (PPPR) [2]. In the PPPR model, manuscripts are published online within a few days after basic editorial checks have been performed, with the goal of maintaining the originality of the manuscripts and to accelerate the availability of research output whilst a transparent peer-review is performed. Today, Sci shares many of its principles and features with Preprints (www.preprints.org): research is available quickly within a few days if it passes editorial checks, each published/posted article is assigned with a DOI and is included in a long-term preservation scheme, and the completed version which is accepted/approved after peer-review is linked to the first version.

In recent years, the number of preprints submitted (11,304 in 2018, 7248 in 2019, 17,939 in 2020 so far) and posted on www.preprints.org (5690 in 2018, 4140 in 2019 and 9581 in 2020 so far) has grown rapidly [3]. However, Sci, although sharing very similar principles and features, did not follow such a strong trend in submissions (83 in 2018, 160 in 2019 and 62 in 2020 so far) and publications (7 in 2018, 56 in 2019, and 18 in 2020 so far). There may be many reasons for there being less submissions and the public peer review taking longer by volunteers. Perhaps, the longer peer-review process and having more versions of the same manuscript may not have been of interest. We have learned a lot from this pilot experiment and shall summarize these aspects of scientific publishing soon in a separate contribution in Sci.

In any case, these observations have led us to reconsider the peer-review model of Sci and to change it to the more classical single-blind pre-publication peer-review model. Interactive commenting enabling the scientific community to comment on aspects of the published articles will remain in place [4]. We encourage our readers to use these tools as one way to interact with the authors and the wider scientific community in an open fashion.

As of 1 November 2020, authors submitting papers to Sci will be offered the possibility to post the submitted version at Preprints while the manuscript is sent to peer-review. Authors will also have the possibility to opt-in for the open peer-review framework which has been in place for all MDPI journals since 2018 [5].