At Open Palaeontology we aim to adopt best-practice policies in transparency and mitigation of unconscious biases in our editorial policies. We have opted for a fully open peer review process as default, in order to handle a range of publication types and preprints. Authors of non-preprinted written submissions can request double-blind peer review which will be unblinded on completion of the review process. We have favoured an open review process for transparency and practicality. We hope that having an open review process will encourage constructive discussion between reviewers and authors. 

For the double-blinded manuscripts should be carefully blinded prior to submission with the removal of potentially identifying information, including for example the institutions at which certain analyses were performed. Counterintuitively to many researchers, there is some evidence that it is very difficult to informally unblind, or identify the authors of, a properly blinded manuscript, with the real risk of accidental unblinding being authors leaving identifying information such as initials or institution names in the manuscript. We therefore encourage all reviewers of blinded manuscripts not to try to informally unblind them. 

If you are interested in signing up as a potential reviewer for Open Palaeontology, please fill out this Google Form. Please note that information submitted through this form is accessible to Open Palaeontology Steering Committee and Editorial Team members. If you want to be removed from the list for any reason, please contact us.