Peer Community In: a free process for the recommendation of preprints based on peer review

The current system of scientific publication is faced with several serious problems: its cost and lack of transparency and the long time from the obtainment of scientific results to their publication. We also believe that the economic model on which the current publishing system is based perverts the system. We have created Peer Community In (PCI)—https://peercommunityin.org/ ; https://youtu.be/4PZhpnc8wwo—to tackle all these problems. This project is based on the publication of critical evaluations and recommendations of articles that have not yet been published, but are freely available in electronic form from open archives on the Internet, in which they have been deposited. These evaluations and recommendations are performed by researchers acting on a voluntary basis with no links to private publishers. Publication costs disappear: PCI validates, distributes and allows consultation of the articles submitted free of charge. The time lag to information access is eliminated: the scientific articles evaluated are deposited in open archives as soon as they are written. The system becomes transparent: reviews, editorial decisions, authors’ responses and recommendations are published on the website of the scientific community concerned (e.g. PCI Evolutionary Biology, PCI Ecology, PCI Paleontology…).