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Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

The aim of this "Peer Community in" project is to create communities of researchers to review and recommend papers publicly available in pre-print servers (such as bioRxiv), which fall within their area of expertise. These communities will be entitled Peer community in xxx, e.g. Peer community in Evolutionary Biology (PCI Evol Biol), Peer community in Microbiology (PCI Microbiol), etc

The Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology (PCI Evol Biol) is the first one being formed.

The motivation behind this project is the establishment of a high-profile, free, public recommendation system for identifying high-quality papers. Recommendations would be recognized within and, subsequently, beyond the community, including by funding and research agencies.

This project should lead to a new scientific publication system, in which unpublished papers are deposited as preprint in open and free archives, reviewed and, if appropriate, awarded a recommendation publicly guaranteeing their scientific quality. This recommendation may provide an alternative to the current evaluation and editing process of scientific journals, which is very costly for research institutions. As most journals accept preprints, submitting a paper for recommendation by a given Peer Community, would not preclude its concomitant submission to a journal of choice. Our aim is, however, that PCI recommendations will be eventually able to stand alone and be recognized within the scientific community, including by funding and research agencies, as a badge of high quality research, obviating the need to submit the paper to a classic journal.