16 November 2022
The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), a community-driven discovery service for open access books, is launching its Peer Review Information Service for Monographs (PRISM). PRISM is a service provided by DOAB as part of the OPERAS service portfolio.
PRISM is a standardised way for academic publishers to display information about their peer review processes across their entire catalogue. On the DOAB site, users can see a PRISM logo next to a publisher and next to the individual book. PRISM peer review information is also included at the metadata level, making it available through the DOAB API which is freely distributed and incorporated into library search tools worldwide.
“DOAB and its community have been discussing and developing PRISM for a few years, and following a successful beta-testing phase, we are pleased to now launch the service, inviting publishers and stakeholders to engage with it” said Niels Stern, co-director of DOAB.
DOAB (including PRISM) is overseen by a Scientific Committee, which validates and reviews requirements, and acts as a Board of Appeal for complaints from publishers.
How does PRISM help?
PRISM’s goal is to provide transparency about the peer review process(es) that apply to publishers’ books with the intention of building trust in open access academic book publishing.
For publishers: PRISM displays the peer review process that has been applied to books in the collection to showcase best practices in peer review.
For librarians: PRISM allows librarians to see the quality control process that applies to a given book to give confidence in recommending the book as a reliable source to researchers and students.
For funders: PRISM privides detailed information about the quality assurance process of the research outputs you’ve funded.
For researchers, students, or general readers: PRISM shows the quality control process that applies to a given book. This gives you more information about the publisher.