How to identify peer-reviewed publications: Open-identity labels in scholarly book publishing

Area of Science:

• Bibliometrics
• Scholarly Communication
• Publishing Studies

Background:

• The open-identity label involves disclosing reviewer names in scholarly book publishing.
• This practice is prevalent in Central and Eastern European countries.
• Its utility as a peer-review indicator for scholarly evaluation systems requires verification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if the open-identity label functions as a peer-review label.
• To assess its applicability as a criterion for evaluating scholarly publications.
• To investigate Polish publishers' peer-review control mechanisms and the role of open identity.

Main Methods:

• A two-phase sequential explanatory study was conducted.
• Phase one involved interviews with 20 major Polish scholarly book publishers.
• Phase two utilized questionnaires for authors (n=600) and reviewers (n=875) to analyze perceptions of peer review and open-identity labeling.

Main Results:

• Polish publishers control peer reviews through assessment criteria and review feedback loops.
• While explicit permission is rarely sought, reviewers understand name disclosure as part of peer reviewing.
• Only reviewers who accept manuscripts have their names disclosed.

Conclusions:

• The open-identity label used by Polish publishers functions as a peer-review label.
• This label is comparable to those used in Finland and Flanders.
• It can be reliably used to identify peer-reviewed scholarly books.