Take part in the launch of Reviews: The Journal of Journal Reviews, a journal that seeks to provide qualitative context of all scholarly journals and acknowledge the critical thought that goes into journal assessment, as an author, peer reviewer, or editorial board member.

RJJR seeks to reckon with biases in scholarly communication through a transparent evaluation process that attempts to address both the labor of evaluation and the bias inherent in the existing system. We aim to do this by publishing peer reviewed Reviews of any scholarly journal – not just open access journals – that are based on a rubric aimed at evaluating journals on their practice, policies, and publication record. Likewise, we understand that many librarians already evaluate scholarly journals on behalf of researchers, likely duplicating work already performed by others. We see RJJR as a place to thus share this work, helping to end redundant efforts, and also provide credit through peer review of work that often goes unnoticed by most. To read more about our goals and values, visit the RJJR website.

For all roles, we seek to include a variety of identities, not just those from the predominant countries, gender, race, and ethnicity.

For interested authors: We invite you to write and submit a Review of a journal using the RJJR rubric. A Review should be no more than 2,000 words. We also require that you identify any potential conflict of interest. Reviews may be submitted through the RJJR submission portal, where you can also find out more about our submission criteria. The goal of a review should not be to provide a final judgment on a journal – i.e. to proclaim it good or bad – but to provide easily digestible peer reviewed evidence about a journal so that a researcher can make an informed decision for themselves if they wish to publish there. Reviews will be published on a rolling basis after peer review is completed. If you would like to see an example of a Review, please see our current issue.

For interested peer reviewers: We invite you to register with RJJR if you would like to serve as a peer reviewer. When you do so, select the final box, “Yes, I would like to be contacted with requests to review submissions to this journal.” Peer reviewers may be asked to demonstrate they are familiar with scholarly publishing and with evaluating scholarly journals. To be courteous to authors, we aim to have reviews returned within two months.

For interested editorial board members: We invite you to email us at reviewsjournal@protonmail.com if you are interested in serving on the editorial board of RJJR. Editorial board members should assume they will be responsible for conducting some number of peer reviews each year. We ask that you include a CV and a one-paragraph statement of why you’re interested in serving on the editorial board. RJJR editorial board members will be active parts of a new journal that is still in the process of launching and will not just serve in an advisory capacity. Membership on the editorial board will include attending hour-long monthly meetings as well as helping out in other areas as needed. Preliminary terms will last three years, although these might vary. Board members should be interested in taking an active role in the journal and have the ability to devote some time and attention to it, either because service falls in their professional duties or because they are willing to devote non-work hours.