Scientists, Publishers Debate Paychecks for Peer Reviewers

While some academics have called for compensation for assessing other scientists’ work, publishers haven’t warmed to the idea.

Written byShawna Williams

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Back in 2015, academic publisher Dan Morgan, then of the University of California Press, took to Medium to argue that a foundational assumption of his industry—that experts should volunteer their time as peer reviewers—is flawed. “I am fairly sure I have never volunteered my time but then had a 3rd party charge a commercial, profit-generating price for it,” he wrote. “[W]e all know that some publishers are getting very, very rich, while nothing tangible is making its way back to the primary volunteers making this happen.”

In return for their labor, Morgan asserted, reviewers for commercial publishers should have a say over the use of some portion of the revenue from published papers. As an example, he cited the model of an open access journal he’d cofounded the previous year, Collabra: Psychology. Reviewers for that journal earn credits that give them control over a ...

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Meet the Author

Shawna Williams
Shawna was an editor at The Scientist from 2017 through 2022. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, and in the communications offices of several academic research institutions. As news director, Shawna assigned and edited news, opinion, and in-depth feature articles for the website on all aspects of the life sciences. She is based in central Washington State, and is a member of the Northwest Science Writers Association and the National Association of Science Writers.
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