on an initiative by the microbiology journal mSphere. Under the new system, the editors no longer take responsibility for inviting peer reviewers to evaluate each manuscript. Instead, the would-be authors are expected to find two reviewers themselves, and to submit the reviews along with their paper.
mSphere call this approach 'author-initiated peer review', but I like to think of it as the "Pick-Your-Own" system. The new system, we're told, will make for a faster review process: "Once everything is submitted, the editor has five days to decide if the journal will accept the paper, as-is, or reject it" says mSphere editor Michael Imperiale. Five days to decision does seem much quicker than the standard peer-review process, which can take many weeks or even months in some cases. But would the new system really save time? It seems to me that "Pick-Your-Own" wouldn't actually make peer review faster, ...
