What is PCI Ecology?
PCI Ecology is a community of the parent project Peer Community In, an original idea of Denis Bourguet, Benoit Facon, and Thomas Guillemaud.
PCI Ecology is not designed to be a free peer reviewing service for authors aiming to improve their articles before submission to a journal, although, of course, it remains possible to submit a recommended preprint to a traditional journal.
- PCI Ecology is stimulating: it recommends remarkable articles.
- PCI Ecology is free: there are no fees associated with the evaluation process, and no charge for access to the comments and recommendations. The website is freely accessible.
- PCI Ecology is transparent: reviews and recommendations (for unpublished articles) and recommendations (for published articles) are freely available for consultation. Recommendations are signed by the recommenders. Reviews may also be signed if the reviewers agree to do so
- PCI Ecology is not exclusive: an article may be recommended by different Peer Communities in X (a feature of particular interest for articles relating to multidisciplinary studies), and may even be published in a traditional journal (although this is not the goal of PCI Ecology).
Managing Board of PCI Ecology
François Massol (Lille, CIIL, Univ. Lille, France)
Ben Phillips (Parkville, Univ. Melbourne, Australia)
Cyrille Violle (Montpellier, CEFE CNRS, France)
Editorial policy
Scope
PCI Ecology recommends preprints addressing questions in ecology about all types of organisms. We cover all fields of biology, provided that the context of the study and the key question addressed relate to ecology. The preprint must not be published or under consideration for evaluation elsewhere at the time of its submission to PCI Ecology.
PCI Ecology recommends only preprints of high scientific quality that are methodologically and ethically sound. To this end, PCI Ecology:
- Requires data, computer codes and mathematical and statistical analysis scripts to be made available to reviewers and recommenders at the time of submission and to readers after recommendation.
- Welcomes reproductions of studies.
- Welcomes preprint submissions based on preregistrations (whether or not reviewed).
- Welcomes preprints reporting negative results, provided that the questions addressed and the methodology are sound.
- Does not accept submissions of preprints presenting financial conflicts of interest. Other conflicts of interest must be minimal and declared.
- Ensures that, as far as possible, the recommenders and referees have no conflict of interest with the content or authors of the study being evaluated.
PCI Ecology does not guarantee the evaluation or recommendation of all submitted preprints. Only preprints considered interesting by at least one competent recommender (equivalent to an associate editor in a classical journal) will be peer-reviewed. The interest of the preprint, as determined by the recommender, can relate to its context, the scientific question addressed, the methodology, or the results. PCI Ecology has a large number of recommenders, ensuring a considerable diversity of interests. The recommendations published by PCI Ecology are designed to draw the attention of the research community to the qualities of the article, including the subjective reasons for the recommender’s interest in it.
Ethics
Peer Community In is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). In addition:
- Financial conflicts of interest are forbidden, see the PCI code of conduct.
- Authors should declare any potential non-financial conflict of interest.
Complaints and Integrity Policy and Procedure
Complaints and Integrity policy and procedure are described in the versioned document found at https://osf.io/erc6x. The version applicable to a complaint is the latest version of the document at the date of the complaint.
Inclusiveness and equity
PCI is attentive to equity and inclusion at all steps of the process of scientific article evaluation. PCI focuses on bringing more people underrepresented in academia among authors submitting to PCI, reviewers, recommenders, and Managing Board members working for PCI. Underrepresentation is linked to many factors, including career stage, gender, and geography.
Specific recommendations are made to reviewers, recommenders, and Managing Board members to increase equity and inclusiveness in each of their tasks.
Tools to increase equity and inclusiveness:
- Possibility to submit articles anonymously
- Transparency in the evaluation of articles
- Managing Board members take into account underrepresentation in academia when appointing new recommenders
- Template messages to recommenders and reviewers include recommendations about equity and inclusiveness
- Possibility to review anonymously
PCI is a signatory of the Joint Statement of Principles of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication (C4DISC)
