PRW 2022: Technical Solutions to Strengthen Trust and Integrity in Scholarly Research
In addition to advancements in digital workflows and the emergence of flexible business models, the scholarly publishing landscape also experiences increasing ethical challenges. With skepticism and distrust in global research on the rise, publishers are looking for opportunities to optimize their workflows and policies to further support efficiency and credibility. Many innovations within the Aries ecosystem, a network of in-house and third-party technology that plug into Editorial Manager® (EM) and ProduXion Manager® (PM), are built to increase the quality, rigor, and integrity of peer review and scholarly output. In honor of Peer Review (PRW) 2022, we are highlighting some of the helpful tools within our ecosystem that can strengthen trust in publishing.
Bibliographic Validity
Inera’s eXtyles Reference Check
EM’s Reference Checking feature, powered by Inera’s eXtyles, automatically restructures, formats, and validates references for Authors. Citation elements (such as article type, Author name, volume, issue, etc.) are tagged in clean, structured XML and are used to query external databases such as PubMed® and Crossref® behind the scenes.
scite Smart Citations
Taking reference checking a step further, scite’s Smart Citations tool generates a report that details important context and classifications describing whether there is supporting or disputing evidence for cited claims within submitted manuscripts. Additionally, scite identifies if references have been retracted, withdrawn, or received some other editorial notice.
Research Reproducibility
SciScore
SciScore automatically scans the methods section of a research article to detect whether authors address bias, sample size, sex, blinding, randomization of subjects, and proper identification of biological resources. It then generates a rigor report and reproducibility score against set criteria.
Ripeta ripetaReview
Ripeta’s ripetaReview automatically evaluates manuscripts against three pillars – research quality, professionalism, and reproducibility – and offers a report of critical feedback to enhance the article.
Plagiarism Detection
Crossref Similarity Check
Crossref’s Similarity Check, powered by iThenticate, is a potential plagiarism detection tool that compares text from submitted manuscripts to information on the Internet and content from more than 40 million published research articles from nearly 600 global publishers and provides a similarity score linked to a detailed report.
Conflict of Interest
AAMC’s Convey
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)’s centralized global disclosure system, Convey®, streamlines the disclosure submittal and reporting process, while promoting transparency and consistency of disclosure data. Publications that subscribe to Convey can request, retrieve, and view Author disclosures and attachments within EM.
Artwork and Language Quality
Sheridan’s Artwork Quality Check
Image quality check, powered by Sheridan, automatically analyzes submitted artwork files and provides each a pass, warning, or fail score along with a detailed report. Using this feature early in the editorial workflow helps prevents delays downstream during production.
Research Square’s Digital Editing
To support researchers with scientific and technical writing, Research Square’s AI-based Digital Editing tool automatically provides Authors with a language check report with suggested critiques to improve the language quality while maintaining accuracy of the data.
Identification and Acknowledgement
Aries Identity Confidence Check
EM comes equipped with Identity Confidence Check (ICC), a tool designed to help Editors evaluate unknown researchers by generating a confidence rating based on several sets of data within EM to help safeguard against questionable authorship and fraudulent peer review.
Persistent Identifiers
Standardized labels help make metadata more consistent and accurate for editorial and downstream use. Popular persistent identifiers include ORCID iDs for people, Ringgold iDs for institutional affiliations, and Crossref’s Funder Registry for funding organizations.
CRediT
CRediT, a taxonomy designed to allow researchers to designate various levels of individual input for scholarly works, consists of 14 predefined classifications and three levels of contributor degrees for each role – lead, equal, or supporting. CRediT enables a consistent and accurate method of identifying and collecting granular research contributions, supporting visibility and acknowledgment for Authors, publishers, and research funders.
Open & Accessible Data
Repositories
Industry repositories such as Dryad, Figshare, and Mendeley Data helps makes publishing open data faster and easier while also making it more accessible and citable. Authors can submit their datasets to these third-party repositories during the manuscript submission process within EM.
In addition to the above tools, publications can take advantage of other functionality within EM/PM that can indirectly support research integrity such as configuring a transparent peer review workflow, creating custom Author questionnaires, customizing instructions and letter language, and more! For more information on this technology, please contact your Aries Account Coordinator for support.
The eighth annual Peer Review Week (PRW), which will be held from September 19th-23rd, is dedicated to the theme of “Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research.” The theme for PRW 2022 was selected via an international survey opened to the publishing community earlier this year. Aries Systems is pleased to collaborate alongside more than 35 participating organizations on the Peer Review Week Steering Committee!
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