Peer review is intended to enhance and validate reports of new scientific studies, and it is the basis upon which journal editors decide what should and should not be published. As a human endeavour it can be susceptible to error or bias, and in recent years it has often been argued that the solution to perceived problems with fairness and quality in peer review is to make it fully open – in other words, to extend open access to peer review.

Fully open peer review means publishing the…