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Peer Review: Types of Peer Review

A guide to the peer review process and different models of review.

Types of Peer Review

Types of peer review with icons next to each description of the type of peer review

There are many different types of peer review. This list is not exhaustive, but includes many of the most common types.

Anonymized peer review can be split into two versions: single-anonymized and double-anonymized. Single-anonymized is when reviewers know the author identities of the manuscript they're reviewing, but the authors do not know the reviewers'. Double-anonymized is when both parties' identities are masked.

Signed peer review is when reviewers sign their comments, and the authors receive the names of the reviewers when they get their decision letter.

Collaborative peer review is when reviewers collaborate with others, either other reviewers or journal editors, or even the authors themselves, during the review process.

Portable peer review is when reviews are requested by a journal or organization and then are later shared with other journals when required.

Published peer review is when the comments from reviewers and/or their names are published when the final article or preprint is.

Post-publication peer review is when peer review occurs after a manuscript is posted. Reviewers are part of an open forum that comments publicly.

Image and information from PLOS. Licensed under CC BY.