At Wiley, we make it a point to listen to our authors, who consistently tell us that complex submission systems can be a pain point in the publication process.  Varying requirements for different journals across the industry can lead to duplication of efforts by authors as they are asked to repurpose their submission several times before receiving that coveted acceptance.  Additionally, reviewers can often be asked to review the same paper for multiple journals.  Recognizing this burden, transfer agreements have been implemented across most of Wiley’s OA journals and our Neuroscience portfolio of journals currently participates in a transferable peer review network.  But the editors of several of our transplantation journals decided to change the game even more by coming together to create a more seamless, rewarding and streamlined publishing experience in this subject area.

How the network was formed

We formed the Wiley Transplant Peer Review Network (Tx PRN).  Tx PRN is a publishing consortium consisting of most of Wiley’s journals in transplantation.  It simplifies the publication process for authors by offering harmonized author guidelines, submission requirements, keywords, and layouts.  It also eases reviewers’ workloads via the implementation of a universal peer review score card and a new “reject and refer” option.  This allows reviews to travel with a paper if the “reject and refer” option is selected, therefore eliminating the need for a reviewer to evaluate the same paper twice.  This also saves editors of journals in the network significant time and effort when choosing content for their journals.

How it’s working

The Network officially launched in January 2016 and so far the response has exceeded expectations. We truly feel that this initiative makes a difference in the transplant research community and also in the larger publishing landscape.  See the infographic below for results the first 8 months of the program.

To learn more about the network or for information on submitting and reviewing in this area, visit the Tx PRN page here.