Take this with a huge grain of salt, because thing vary enormously field to field.
10 days turnaround sounds too good to be true to me. If it was 6 months I would maybe give it a try for value of information.
But there’s more:
Price seems cheap: Last paper I reviewed took me 10-15 hours, so 300-500 + tax would be a reasonable price range and 150-250 sounds meagre. And you need to factor in admin, infra and costs that are not just paying the reviewer.
In my field, peer review is “pro bono” but done during the “working hours” of people with public salaries mostly. And there’s the understanding that since we publish and someone else reviews, we also should review some. However, that means that the availability to review varies a lot depending on teaching, research, admin, etc, and we usually fit it in with low priority.
That means if you want someone to review a paper, even if they only need 2 days, the people that have the expertise usually have work to do and might not be willing to give up on next weekend.
About “what if I got paid”, it’s complicated, bc it depends on if I really have the time (meaning, no plans on the only weekend in the 10 day window, and willing to work), but probably not.
And there’s also an ugh factor about getting paid for something that we usually do for free / as part of a salaried job. I’m not decided on it.
I think you’re selling yourself short at 300-500 USD. Gemini estimates 1600-4200 USD (for 3 reviewers total), Opus 400-1000 USD (for a single reviewer spending only 4-6 hours). I endorse those estimates.
Prompt for those curious:
If academic peer reviews were compensated at market rate (ie, relative to industry pay for someone with the relevant expertise), how much would it cost to have a typical academic paper reviewed?
My wild guess about the turnaround time is that they just have so many reviewers “on call” that even if most are unavailable within the 10-day window, at least some people will be available.
The price does seem kind of low. I wonder if the actual average price ends up being more than the list price? E.g., if drafts are above 5,000 words?
I do wonder if the price and turnaround time is too good to be true.
Take this with a huge grain of salt, because thing vary enormously field to field.
10 days turnaround sounds too good to be true to me. If it was 6 months I would maybe give it a try for value of information.
But there’s more:
Price seems cheap: Last paper I reviewed took me 10-15 hours, so 300-500 + tax would be a reasonable price range and 150-250 sounds meagre. And you need to factor in admin, infra and costs that are not just paying the reviewer.
In my field, peer review is “pro bono” but done during the “working hours” of people with public salaries mostly. And there’s the understanding that since we publish and someone else reviews, we also should review some. However, that means that the availability to review varies a lot depending on teaching, research, admin, etc, and we usually fit it in with low priority.
That means if you want someone to review a paper, even if they only need 2 days, the people that have the expertise usually have work to do and might not be willing to give up on next weekend.
About “what if I got paid”, it’s complicated, bc it depends on if I really have the time (meaning, no plans on the only weekend in the 10 day window, and willing to work), but probably not.
And there’s also an ugh factor about getting paid for something that we usually do for free / as part of a salaried job. I’m not decided on it.
I think you’re selling yourself short at 300-500 USD. Gemini estimates 1600-4200 USD (for 3 reviewers total), Opus 400-1000 USD (for a single reviewer spending only 4-6 hours). I endorse those estimates.
Prompt for those curious: If academic peer reviews were compensated at market rate (ie, relative to industry pay for someone with the relevant expertise), how much would it cost to have a typical academic paper reviewed?
I computed the time that it takes me * my salary, approx.
Ofc if I did this as a freelancer I would charge more.
Hm, interesting! Thanks for weighing in!
My wild guess about the turnaround time is that they just have so many reviewers “on call” that even if most are unavailable within the 10-day window, at least some people will be available.
The price does seem kind of low. I wonder if the actual average price ends up being more than the list price? E.g., if drafts are above 5,000 words?
I do wonder if the price and turnaround time is too good to be true.