Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29451533›Full record

ArticleResearch integrity and peer review2017

Recruitment of reviewers is becoming harder at some journals: a test of the influence of reviewer fatigue at six journals in ecology and evolution.

Charles W Fox, Arianne Y K Albert, Timothy H Vines

Abstract readEditorial
In one paragraph

Article in Research integrity and peer review, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
28citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

28 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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  3. A transparent universal credit system to incentivize peer review.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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  4. Paying peer reviewers: benefits, risks, and challenges.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026
    Review
  5. Article
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  7. Reviewers are better equipped to detect fraud than editors.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Publishing during a Pandemic: Analyzing Recent Publication Times in Hand Surgery.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2024
    Article
  13. "It is becoming increasingly difficult to find reviewers"-myths and facts about peer review.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2024
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Improving equity, diversity, and inclusion in academia.Research integrity and peer review · 2022
    Article
  17. Editorial Work and the Peer Review Economy of STS Journals.Science, technology & human values · 2022
    Article
  18. Article
  19. The challenge of recruiting peer reviewers from one medical journal's perspective.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2022
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Charles W Fox1Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091 USA.
Arianne Y K Albert2Women's Health Research Institute, BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 3N1 Canada.
Timothy H VinesAxios Review Editorial Office, 4521 John Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V5V 3X3 Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIt is commonly reported by editors that it has become harder to recruit reviewers for peer review and that this is because individuals are being asked to review too often and are experiencing reviewer fatigue. However, evidence supporting these arguments is largely anecdotal. MAIN BODY: We examine responses of individuals to review invitations for six journals in ecology and evolution. The proportion of invitations that lead to a submitted review has been decreasing steadily over 13 years (2003-2015) for four of the six journals examined, with a cumulative effect that has been quite substantial (average decline from 56% of review invitations generating a review in 2003 to just 37% in 2015). The likelihood that an invitee agrees to review declines significantly with the number of invitations they receive in a year. However, the average number of invitations being sent to prospective reviewers and the proportion of individuals being invited more than once per year has not changed much over these 13 years, despite substantial increases in the total number of review invitations being sent by these journals-the reviewer base has expanded concomitant with this growth in review requests.

conclusionsThe proportion of review invitations that lead to a review being submitted has been declining steadily for four of the six journals examined here, but reviewer fatigue is not likely the primary explanation for this decline.

Indexed as

Peer reviewReviewer fatigueReviewersScholarly journals

Identifiers

PMID29451533
PMCPMC5803623

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.