Peer review is a cornerstone of scientific publishing, ensuring that research is scrutinised by experts, yet it is notorious for being slow. Authors often wait weeks or months for feedback on their work, delaying the dissemination of new discoveries. At Biology Open, we are taking a bold step to change this with our Fast & Fair peer review initiative, an experiment designed to deliver rigorous, high-quality peer review within seven business days.
The traditional peer review process is plagued by delays, often because finding reviewers takes too long. Once reviewers are secured, they must balance reviewing with their own research and administrative duties, leading to prolonged turnaround times. This sluggishness frustrates authors and slows the progress of science.
We asked a simple but profound question: Can peer review be fast without sacrificing quality? Our pilot study suggests the answer is yes.
Fast & Fair peer review is built on a structured, predictable workflow (Fig. 1) designed to eliminate bottlenecks. Key features include:
Pre-recruited reviewers: Instead of searching for reviewers after submission, we proactively enlist experts who commit in advance to providing timely high quality reviews in their area of expertise based on our standardised rubric. This means academic editors waste no time in securing reviewers.
Compensated reviewers: We recognise the value of reviewers’ time by paying them for their work, ensuring accountability and rapid turnaround.
A strict editorial timeline: Within one business day of submission, the editorial office conducts standard rubric and ethics checks and assigns the manuscript to an academic editor, who decides whether to reject the manuscript or send it for peer review. Reviewers must confirm availability within a day and complete their reviews within four business days. Editors then make a decision – whether to accept, reject, or request revisions – by the seventh business day.
Editorial review: Our academic editors actively appraise the reviewer reports. They assess the quality of every review to ensure that feedback is constructive, rigorous, and meets our high standards. Reviewers who submit late or inadequate reviews do not receive compensation. Biology Open employs ten highly qualified academic editors who are active researchers and have worked for the journal for many years. Our team of experienced editors ensures professionalism and consistent adherence to our rubric for publication.
To test whether Fast & Fair peer review was feasible, we ran a six-month pilot study for all manuscripts assigned to two of our academic editors responsible for manuscripts covering animal physiology and developmental biology (Gorelick and Clark, 2025, preprint; Fast & Fair peer review collection). The results were compelling. 100% of manuscripts in the trial received a first decision within seven business days (n=20 manuscripts). The average turnaround time was just 4.6 business days, a dramatic improvement over the standard review process (∼38 business days). Review quality remained high, as confirmed by editorial assessments. These findings demonstrate that speed and quality can coexist in peer review. Additional details and statistics can be found in the preprint (Gorelick and Clark, 2025).
Encouraged by the success of our pilot, we are gradually expanding Fast & Fair to more subject areas and editors. Additionally, we are introducing transparent peer review, where reviewer reports will be published alongside accepted manuscripts. This allows readers to assess the quality and fairness of the peer review process for themselves, ensuring that our commitment to maintaining rigorous and constructive reviews remains in line with the high standards associated with The Company of Biologist's journals. While aspects of transparent peer review are currently optional (authors can opt out), we intend to make our transparency standards mandatory in the future.
At Biology Open, our mission is to support biologists by providing a publishing experience that is efficient, transparent and fair. Reducing delays in peer review benefits not only authors but also the broader scientific community. By making high-quality peer review faster, we can accelerate the pace of discovery. We cannot do that alone. If you are interested in participating as a reviewer, please visit our Fast & Fair reviewer page for more information on eligibility criteria and reviewer expectations.
To our Fast & Fair reviewers: thank you for your time, expertise and commitment to reviewing manuscripts quickly. You are improving scientific publishing.
To our academic editors: thank you for your dedication to the journal and for your willingness to experiment and improve peer review. You perform feats that no other journal demands; you work on tight deadlines, and you review the peer review reports. We couldn't do this without you.
We invite the scientific community to join us in shaping the future of peer review. If you have feedback on our initiative or suggestions for improving peer review, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected].
