[RQC-interest] Review Quality Collector (RQC) status update August 2024

["Prechelt, Lutz" <prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de>]

Dear members of rqc-interest,

I welcome 12 new members on this list. I put you on it because I believe you are interested in improving peer review.

As the others may remember, Review Quality Collector (RQC) is an initiative for improving the quality of scientific peer review.
Its core is a mechanism that supplies a reviewer with a receipt for their work for each journal year. That receipt certifies not only quantity, but quality of reviews, based on journal-specific criteria of timeliness, helpfulness for decision, and helpfulness for authors and determined as a ranking percentile to avoid grade inflation. Research institutions can collect those receipts and use them for research assessment. Goal: Improving reviews by turning reviewing into a generally recognized source of reputation.

https://reviewqualitycollector.org/

The proof-of-concept implementation of RQC, aiming at conferences, that had been in use since 2016, is now gradually retiring. I consider the idea and principles of RQC to be validated. I am now looking for journals who want to be pilot users for the full-fledged implementation of RQC for journals which is now available.

Questions? Any at all? Please write to me, I am happy to explain.
Ideas? Please write to me, I want to hear about them!
Know others who will want to know about RQC? Please point them out to me.
Hate the RQC idea? Please write to me as well so we can discuss!

I still need lots more feedback from reviewers, editors, and publishers how they think about the RQC idea. If you care about any of this at all (whether positively or negatively): please write.

In particular, if you are at a journal or a publisher who might (only might!) be willing to pick up the RQC idea, please contact me for a tailored explanation and discussion. I have been in contact with about a hundred editors, which resulted in two publishers who are now considering an introduction. My long-term goal is to make RQC a mainstream mechanism routinely used at most high-quality publishers and at many top universities.

 

  Lutz

 

Prof. Dr. Lutz Prechelt; prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de
Institut f. Informatik; Freie Universität Berlin
Takustr. 9, R.014; 14195 Berlin; Germany
+49 30 838 75115; http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/w/SE/