In this special guest blog piece, Katie Corker, Executive Director at ASAPbio, outlines ASAPbio Crowd Review Program’s innovative approach to research assessment and how it makes the most of PREreview.org to foster community-driven preprint review.
Leveraging the strengths of teamwork, diverse perspectives, and expertise, peer review is moving beyond the confines of journal publishing and into the open. In teams of researchers called crowds, it’s easier than ever to provide open, collaborative evaluation of research. ASAPbio’s Crowd Preprint Review Program is an international, community-driven initiative that enables a more transparent and interactive review process. Now in its fifth iteration, the program’s activities are kicking off in March.
This year, two crowds, each consisting of three co-leads and about 60 members, will collaborate to provide peer review and feedback on preprints. Every month, crowd leads select a preprint for review. Crowd members are given two weeks to asynchronously mark up the paper and provide comments. Crowd leads then synthesize the comments into one combined review. The final review is posted on PREreview.org, allowing both the preprint authors and the wider community to benefit from the comments.
The impetus behind the program is twofold. First, ASAPbio believes in the value of innovation and experimentation to improve scholarly publishing. Open evaluation of preprints provides a perfect opportunity to try things out and experiment outside of the confines of traditional journal peer review workflows. Plus, leveraging strength in numbers and diversity of expertise allows our crowds to efficiently provide rich feedback to peers, without the need for each crowd member to do a comprehensive review. Second, the program allows us to provide a structured reviewing experience for researchers -such as people early in their career or those working in low-resource settings- who might not otherwise be invited to participate in the peer review process. The program allows us to capitalize on the valuable expertise of these contributors, returning that value to the community.
Posting our reviews to PREreview.org, as part of their PREreview Clubs initiative, has several benefits for the program. First, the platform is well-integrated with key partners. All crowd members who opt in receive credit for their review and will have it publicly visible on their ORCID profiles. The reviews themselves are viewable on the PREreview platform, but also indexed by partners like Sciety and displayed alongside preprints on servers like bioRxiv. This makes it easier for readers to discover reviews. Second, based on their preferences, reviewers can be named (linking to their ORCID profile), pseudonymous, or fully anonymous. The PREreview platform seamlessly handles these differing researcher needs. Lastly, the user experience of the PREreview platform is top-notch. In just a few minutes, crowd leads can easily upload a review and add all contributing crowd members.
Since 2021, ASAPbio Crowds have provided reviews of 122 papers, with the median paper being reviewed by between five and nine crowd members. Last year’s crowds reviewed papers on Cell Biology, Immunology, Microbiology, and Meta-Research. In an evaluation of the program released last year, crowd members reported that they appreciated the opportunity to develop their reviewing skills and enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with peers. They also appreciated the user-friendly tools and workflow offered.
This year’s crowds will focus on Cell Biology and Meta-Research. Reviewing will start in the first week of March 2026 and continue on a monthly basis through August 2026. New crowd members can join at any time, but are especially welcome now as the program is kicking off. To join, simply visit our program page and fill out the form. Previous reviewing experience is not necessary, and training is provided. Another way to get involved is to start your own preprint review crowd. Our easy toolkit provides guidance for getting started.
Learn more in ASAPbio’s “A Team Effort: Why and How to do Open Collaborative Peer Review” Community Call
We invite you to please join us on March 5, 2026 for an ASAPbio Community Call, where we will discuss the ins and outs of doing open peer review as part of a team.
ASAPbio and PREreview staff will come together and talk about:
- Peer review crowds and clubs,
- Benefits of collaborative peer review for reviewers and study authors,
- How to start your own peer review crowd or club,
- How to use the PREreview platform for open preprint review.
📌 If you want to learn more about PREreview Clubs, join an existing Club, or are interested in starting your own, you can read more on our website.
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