Reviewer Zero: Changing the Culture of Peer Review to Increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

科学之所以进步，是因为科学家收集数据、开发方法和产生理论，这些理论成为共享科学记录的一部分。为了成为共享记录的一部分，科学工作要经过其他科学家的同行评审。尽管同行评议的目的是促进严格的标准，但它也对科学工作者产生了影响——在以研究为重点的职业中，谁想留下来，谁能够留下来。尽管同行评议是一项核心的科学实践，但学习如何参与同行评议并没有得到明确的教导。很少有人接受培训或监督，以确保审稿人提供有用的、专业的和文化敏感的反馈（即，以一种不会边缘化未被充分代表的少数民族学者的方式交付）。研究生的同行评议经历会影响他们是否决定留在STEM道路上。本项目从公平性（结果和过程在不同群体之间是否公平）、包容性（同行评议是否为不同群体提供契合和归属感的体验）和多样性（同行评议是否有助于增加构成该领域的身份和经验的范围）的角度来审视同行评议。这项授予印第安纳大学、哥伦比亚大学和加州州立大学圣贝纳迪诺分校的NSF研究生教育创新奖旨在通过改善同行评议文化和研究生应对同行评议的能力，促进科学领域的多样性、公平性和包容性。该项目支持“零审稿人”的创新结构和目标，这是一个由心理学和神经科学领域的教师和研究生组成的联盟，致力于理解和干预，以提高同行评议过程的公平性。Reviewer Zero设想了一种同行评审文化的“重置”，在这种文化中，评审起到了形成而不是把关的作用。该项目将针对两个受众制定战略规划：历史上未被充分代表的研究生，最直接受到不公平同行评议制度的影响，以及在同行评议决策中占据权力地位的审稿人/编辑。该项目将设计、提供和评估为每个受众建立意识、知识和支持的干预措施。具体来说，该项目询问如何针对文化周期的不同方面，才能最好地将同行评审文化转向更公平的方向。通过重新构想同行评议是什么，基于证据的培训将为个人提供新的工具和支持，无论他们是学员还是评议者。一种新的论文开发系统（形成性和互动性审查）将为审稿人和学员之间根本不同的互动提供一种新的制度结构。与现有机构（期刊、学会）的外联和伙伴关系将导致传播关于同行评议目标和过程的新观点。为了实现这些目标，该项目将实施一项全面的战略，通过(a)与审稿人/编辑合作改变文化，(b)为研究生提供指导同行评议的直接支持和培训，增加同行评议过程中的多样性、公平性和包容性。通过研究参与项目活动如何影响实习生或审稿人/编辑的知识、技能和能力，该项目将有助于理解文化周期的变化是如何发生的。研究生教育创新（IGE）项目专注于研究生教育的研究。IGE的目标是试点、测试和验证研究生教育的创新方法，并产生将这些方法推广到更广泛的社区所需的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Science advances because scientists collect data, develop methods, and generate theories that become part of a shared scientific record. To be part of this shared record, scientific works go through peer review by other scientists. Although peer review is intended to promote rigorous standards, it also has consequences for the scientific workforce - for who wants to stay and who is able to stay, in research-focused careers. Despite peer review’s place as a core scientific practice, learning how to engage with peer review is not explicitly taught. Few people receive training or oversight to ensure that reviewers provide feedback that is helpful, professional, and culturally sensitive (i.e., delivered in a way that does not marginalize underrepresented minority scholars). Graduate students’ experiences with peer review can influence whether they decide to stay in the STEM pathway. This project examines peer review with an eye to equity (are outcomes and processes equitable across groups), inclusion (does peer review offer experiences of fit and belonging across groups), and diversity (does peer review contribute to increasing the range of identities and experiences constituting the field). This NSF Innovations of Graduate Education (IGE) award to Indiana University, Columbia University, and California State San Bernardino seeks to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion within science by improving peer review culture and graduate students’ ability to navigate peer review. This project supports the innovative structure and goals of Reviewer Zero, a coalition of faculty and graduate students in psychology and neuroscience working to understand and intervene to increase equity in peer review processes. Reviewer Zero envisions a “reset” of peer review culture in which reviews serve a formative rather than gatekeeping function. This project will develop strategic programming with two audiences: the historically underrepresented graduate students most directly affected by inequitable systems of peer review, and the reviewers/editors who occupy positions of power in making peer review decisions. The project will design, deliver, and assess interventions that build awareness, knowledge, and support for each audience. Specifically, the project asks how targeting different aspects of the culture cycle can best shift peer review culture toward greater equity. By re-imagining ideas about what peer review is, the evidence-based training will engage individuals with new tools and supports, whether they are trainees or reviewers. A new paper development system (Formative And Interactive Review) will provide a novel institutional structure for fundamentally different interactions between reviewers and trainees. Outreach and partnerships with existing institutions (journals, societies) will lead to the dissemination of new views of the goals and processes of peer review. Towards these goals, this project will implement a comprehensive strategy to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the peer review process by (a) working with reviewers/editors to shift culture and (b) providing direct support and training to graduate students navigating peer review. By studying how engaging with program activities affects trainee or reviewer/editor knowledge, skills, and abilities, the project will contribute to understanding how shifts in culture cycles occur.The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.