Stress Response Modeling at IceLab guest researcher Aaron Clauset will give an online science of science talk titled 'Editorial and peer review dynamics at elite general science journals' on October 5th at 15.00 in Zoom.
The stakes of peer review are especially high at elite general science journals, as papers published in these venues are more likely to shape scientific discourse, public policy, and academic careers. However, expectations of confidentiality in most editorial proceedings restricts the data available for assessing how well they achieve the scientific community’s ideals, or to develop and test theories to improve the process.
In this talk, I will describe a new anonymized dataset comprising the evaluations of 110,303 manuscript submitted over five years at Science and Science Advances, and a detailed analysis of what it tells us about editorial and peer review at elite general science journals. Across both stages, the strongest selective effects are associated with institutional prestige, specific research topics, larger team sizes, and geographic location. Associations are systematically stronger during the initial editorial review. I will conclude by discussing how this two-stage evaluation model presents distinct opportunities to test interventions--such as partial anonymization--and why applying scientific rigor to our own gatekeeping practices is essential to aligning elite publishing with the scientific community's meritocratic ideals.
Aaron Clauset is a Professor of Computer Science, faculty in the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder, and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. An internationally recognized expert in network science and complex systems, his research uncovers the fundamental principles that govern surprising patterns in social and biological systems. His pioneering work on networks and rare events have transformed how scientists analyze complex systems. He serves as a Deputy Editor at Science Advances and is an elected Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Network Science Society, as well as recipient of the Erdos–Renyi Prize in Network Science. He earned his PhD in Computer Science with distinction from the University of New Mexico, where he was recently named a Distinguished Alumnus. Outside the lab, he is an avid runner, a father of three girls, and a passionate traveler aiming to visit every continent.
Past Science of Science Seminars
Aaron Clauset previously gave an IceLab Science of Science seminar in October 2025 on gender differences in collaboration networks. You can watch this seminar on our UMU Play channel 'IceLab Special Seminars'.
This seminar will also be recorded and added to our UMU Play channel.
Find out more about the Integrated Science Lab (IceLab) and Stress Response Modeling at IceLab at our website icelab.se.
Aaron Clauset, Professor of Computer Science, faculty in the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.
