Peer review week 2026: volume, speed and quality

Peer Review Week 2026

It’s Peer Review week 2026! The aim of peer review week is to celebrate the vital role of peer review in maintaining the quality and integrity of research. This year’s theme is:

Peer review capacity: volume, speed and quality

With increasing numbers of submissions being reported within the journal publishing community, challenges to maintain the quality and integrity of peer review have become more apparent.

In this post, we will highlight some of the initiatives we have at The New Phytologist Foundation to ensure that we continue to provide a high-quality peer review service.

Integrity of reviews

We are lucky to have our own dedicated in-house Peer Review team. Our team reads through every review that we receive to ensure that feedback to authors is constructive and sufficiently detailed. We keep in close contact with our fantastic Editorial Boards and we endeavour to ensure that authors receive high-quality reviews in a reasonable timeframe.

Would I be willing to sign my name at the end of what I just wrote to the authors?

– Dior Kelley, New Phytologist Editor

Capacity of reviewers

We recognise that the rise in submissions is resulting in reviewers being asked to review a record number of papers. To align with the increase in submissions, there is a need for an increase in reviewers too. One way to encourage new reviewers is by looking to the next generation.

Early career researchers are our reviewers of the future, so it is important to provide reviewing opportunities. If you are invited to review a paper, consider whether one of your colleagues or mentees could contribute. This could be a valuable learning experience for early career researchers and offers many benefits.

Retaining reviewers

It is also important that our loyal reviewers are recognised as we could not publish our papers without them. Regular reviewers and co-reviewers can receive recognition through Web of Science and we can also provide a formal certificate of review if requested. Read more about reviewer recognition in one of our posts from last year’s Peer Review Week.

We hope that this post encourages you or a colleague to review for New Phytologist or Plants, People, Planet, both of which are owned by the not-for-profit New Phytologist Foundation. We are so appreciative of our peer reviewers, and it is with their help that we can maintain our excellent service to authors and the wider scientific community by publishing high quality, impactful research.

If you are interested in becoming a reviewer for New Phytologist or Plants, People, Planet, please contact our friendly editorial team. We look forward to hearing from you!