Please join us in congratulating the 23 PREreview Champions of 2025 and learn more about their accomplishments!
Throughout the program, we journeyed together to learn and practice socially conscious, open, and constructive peer review. We reflected on our own biases and the influence each of us holds in shaping a more equitable system of scholarly evaluation. Through collaborative review sessions, we co-authored and published reviews on PREreview.org, turning reflection into action.
Each month, we also gathered for catch-up calls, spaces where Champions discussed topics they had chosen together, shared progress and challenges, and exchanged ideas to support one another’s growth.
Champions then carried this momentum forward, becoming catalysts for change in their own local communities. They organized creative, locally rooted activities to share, adapt, and expand these practices, multiplying the impact of what we built together.
Inspired by the feedback from the 2024 cohort, this year, we implemented several changes:
- Buddy system: Champions were paired in small groups based on shared research interests, time zones, and preferred languages to meet regularly and support each other.
- Two train calls/module: We expanded the number of training sessions offered and split the cohort into two to be able to be more flexible with time zones.
- Champions Alums Mentorship Program: We implemented a mentoring program where 2024 and 2025 Champions alums were recruited to help mentor future cohorts of Champions.
Read on to learn more about this year’s Champions' achievements, their reflections on the program, and our plans for next year.
To learn more about our 2025 PREreview Champions, check out our earlier blog post here.
(Ready to learn more about becoming part of next year’s cohort? Check out this blog post.)
A cohort of change-makers and community multipliers
To complete the Champions Program, we asked all Champions to undertake at least one engagement activity within the six-month program period. Almost all Champions (21/23) successfully completed at least one engagement activity, collectively engaging over 800 members of their local communities around the world!
Champions also helped us to translate and localize many of our resources, created multilingual videos, developed new workshop activities aimed at new audiences such as undergraduate students, founded new PREreview Clubs, and introduced us to new organizations and initiatives to collaborate with in the future.
Examples of 2025 Champions’ engagement efforts include:
Rosario Rogel-Salazar, Edilson Damasio, and Laura Camelo collaborated to run an Open Reviewers workshop in Spanish, launching the new Ibero-American Open Science Community Club (CIbCA) in the process. Follow-on activities are already planned, including Live Reviews, future workshops, and collaboration with the Congreso de Ciencia Abierta.
Ayomikun Kade and Adeleye Edema also collaborated to run an Open Reviewers Workshop aimed at equipping early-career researchers in Nigeria with the skills and knowledge to engage in peer review.
Both Kaitlyn Wade and Toba Olatoye organised a two-part in-person workshop for graduate students and early career researchers at their respective institutions on the basics of peer review, preprints, and how to engage with PREreview.
Domenico Azarnia Tehran, launched a new PREreview Club within the PhD School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Padua in Italy. As Club Lead, he has coordinated with the Journal Club committee to integrate PREreview into the PhD training curriculum. Fellow Champion LESSA TCHOHOU Fabrice has also set up a new PREreview Club in the domain of plant biotechnology at the University of Yaounde, Cameroon.
Roseline Dzekem Dine and Michael Landi organized an East Africa webinar series in collaboration with the Review and Curate network. Here, they introduced the work of PREreview, the role of open peer review, including a live demo of the PREreview website.
Rachel Mtama, Laura Camelo, LESSA TCHOHOU Fabrice, Mercy Masanga, Alvin Domenic, Aneth David, Edilson Damasio, Muhammad Shahbaz Aleem, Amber Osman, and Ritwik Agarwal all gave talks at various institutions and conferences across Nigeria, Canada, Cameroon, Tanzania, the US, Brazil, Pakistan, and Iraq. These talks focused on the benefits and challenges of open, preprint review, equity, diversity, and inclusion in peer review, and the role of PREreview in fostering transparent, collaborative, and constructive peer feedback.
Additionally, Teena Bajaj, Rosario Rogel-Salazar, Toba Olatoye, and Aneth David all collaborated to run a Live Review in collaboration with eLife during Peer Review Week. Yohana Amos also hosted and facilitated a Live Review in both English and Swahili at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology and the University of Dar es Salaam.
What we learned from the 2025 cohort
We greatly value the feedback Champions give us on their experiences of being a PREreview Champion, the training and support received, as well as what improvements we can add to the next iteration of the program.
At the conclusion of the program, Champions were invited to complete a brief feedback survey and join a group summary call. Below are some highlights from what they shared.
Highlights from the program shared by Champions included:
“I appreciated the highly interactive nature of the training sessions.”
“The amazing support from the PREreview team and the cohort of diverse trainees with different experiences and backgrounds.”
“I loved the resources provided and the attention from the PREreview team to all the details of the program.”
“I liked the inclusive environment, how supportive everyone was, I felt really appreciated, encouraged, and valued.”
“The regular catch-up meetings were very helpful for reflection, clarifications, and maintaining momentum.”
“I feel grateful for the opportunity to have been part of the program. It gave me valuable exposure to open peer review practices and the confidence to share these ideas with others.”
“It has been super engaging with lots of 'what to do' while serving as an avenue for me to network with like-minded people beyond the program.”
Some of the challenges Champions encountered or things they thought could be improved included:
“More follow-up calls”
“Engaging first batch of PREreview Champions (to aid with the training and mentoring)”
“I have found some difficulties in finding enough time for organizing activities in my community.”
“My biggest challenge is time! As many other postdocs in life sciences, I have very little extra time during my working hours.”
“Some asynchronous classes would allow more time to perform a live discussion of the concepts and challenges.”
“More collaboration between Champions”
We are so incredibly grateful for the thoughtful, caring, and participatory contributions of this year’s Champions. THANK YOU for being part of the PREreview community and for contributing to making scholarly evaluation a more open and equitable space for everyone!
What’s next?
And with that, we wrap up another amazing year of PREreview Champions. Are you ready for what’s next? In our next blog post, you’ll find everything you need to know about the 2026 Champions Cohort, including HOW TO APPLY!
Thank you for reading and for sharing this opportunity with your extended communities!
