Expanded paid peer review model at Biology Open cuts decision time from 38 to 5.5 days without sacrificing quality

View ORCID ProfileDaniel A Gorelick, View ORCID ProfileAlejandra Clark

23d ago· 2 min readenInsight

Summary

This article reports on the expanded implementation of the Fast & Fair paid peer review model at the journal Biology Open in 2025. Building on a 2024 pilot, the model uses pre-contracted paid reviewers (£220 per manuscript) and a structured editorial timeline. Results show that Fast & Fair reduced time to first decision from a mean of 37.7 working days under conventional peer review to 5.5 working days, while maintaining or improving review quality. Reviewer acceptance rates increased (67% vs 23%), nonresponse dropped (13% vs 39%), and completion rates rose (98% vs 87%). Editorial decision profiles and final acceptance rates remained similar (59% vs 61%). The authors note that financial sustainability at scale still needs testing.

Source

bskyExpanded paid peer review model at Biology Open cuts decision time from 38 to 5.5 days without sacrificing qualitybiorxiv.org

Key quotes

· 5 pulled

Fast & Fair reduced time to first decision with reviews from a mean of 37.7 working days under conventional peer review to 5.5 working days.

Fast & Fair invitations were accepted more often than conventional invitations (67% versus 23%), had lower nonresponse (13% versus 39%), and had higher completion among accepted invitations (98% versus 87%).

Faster review was not associated with reduced review quality.

Fast & Fair produced fewer low-scoring reports than conventional peer review.

While financial sustainability remains to be tested at scale, the Fast & Fair model addresses a major bottleneck in traditional peer review by replacing ad hoc reviewer recruitment with conditional compensation, predefined quality standards and a strict editorial timeline.

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Traditional peer review is often slowed by delays in identifying willing reviewers and waiting for completed review reports. In a 2024 pilot on the journal Biology Open, we showed that Fast & Fair peer review, which uses pre-contracted paid reviewers and

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