How Research Quality Evaluation (RQE) Can Help with Peer Review

What is Research Quality Evaluation (RQE)?

The Research Quality Evaluation process is designed to make communication faster, fairer, and more useful.

RQE breaks the barriers of the peer review process. The average peer review can take as long as 14 weeks to evaluate a manuscript. RQE returns papers in an average of 11 days. Researchers can spend more time researching and submitting to journals instead of waiting weeks for papers to be reviewed.

RQE makes the research process fairer. We invite reviewers based on their expertise without regard to their country of residence or origin and currently work with individuals from 101 unique countries.

We utilize a universal form for all journals that guides the reviewer in assessing the science rather than rightness of fit in a journal. This makes the reviews useful to all journals while making the process of reviewing simpler for reviewers.

Types of forms available

1) Research Quality Evaluation: uses a standardized evaluation form focusing only on the scientific quality of the manuscript.

• Research article: standard form
• Case report: specialized form
• Study protocol: specialized form

2) Statistical review: Uses a standardized evaluation form, but focused on the statistical methods used in a manuscript. Completed by researchers who are expert statisticians. Intended to fill gaps in peer reviewer expertise.

3)Rescue revision: For use when the original peer reviewer of a manuscript is not available to assess a revision. We use a separate form that asks the rescue reviewer to evaluate the manuscript as well as the previous reviewer's comments and the authors' responses.

4)Revision Round Research Quality Evaluation: A follow-up evaluation of a revised manuscript, completed by the same peer reviewer who assessed the original. A "round" refers to the iterative nature of peer review and the assessment of each newly revised version.

Why is RQE necessary in today’s publishing world?

1) Research is accelerating

2)Subject matter experts still have to carefully look over each manuscript before publishing which could take up to a year.

3) RQE eliminates the publishing bottleneck: RQE complements and speeds up editorial workflows. Some potential problems solved in the editorial office include: 

• Reduced time to decision
• Secure a report when a reviewer who previously agreed to review has “ghosted” the journal
• Secure a report when you have one positive review in hand, but you cannot find a second reviewer
• Reduce editor stress
• Add diversity to reviewer pools

What is the process of RQE?

1) Manuscript is matched with a qualified reviewer for an efficient evaluation

Peer review coordinators match the paper to a qualified reviewer. We maintain our own database of peer reviewers and follow a set of criteria to ensure a quality match. Peer reviewers complete our universal peer review form that guides them in assessing the science. Our Peer Review Coordinators are available to assist the reviewer at any step in the process, but we do not interfere with the content of the peer review.

2) Peer Review Coordinator examines for completeness

Once the review is received, we check the review to ensure it meets our quality standards. This includes thoroughness, the format, and evaluating the review for a potential reviewer mismatch. We do not evaluate the final assessment (positive or negative) of the reviewer.

3) Completed reviews are delivered to each journal’s preferred manuscript tracking system

After a manuscript has been reviewed, we send each one to the correlating manuscript tracking system.

How can RQE help with peer review?

RQE has a 95% success rate with engaging manuscript reviewers that yield reports. Customers report that up to 75% of manuscripts that would have been lost due to delays are now accepted due to RQE.