About
Pilcrow is an application that facilitates the peer review process for scholarly communications.
Pilcrow is founded on creating supportive experiences for authors, reviewers, and editors. Traditional peer review at academic journals serves a gatekeeping role, determining whether a piece is publishable or not; this decision comes after the piece is nearly complete. This type of peer review often proves hostile to new ideas, unproven authors, and unfamiliar audiences. The process can even be traumatic for those involved.
In contrast, Pilcrow provides an environment for a peer review practice with transparency, collegiality, and ongoing developmental conversations. It is structured to encourage peer engagement rooted in trust and a shared commitment to improving the work through candid and collegial feedback. Pilcrow enables editorial teams to develop an inclusive, supportive space in which ideas are explored and refined collaboratively.
On Pilcrow, editorial teams can move a piece of scholarship from submission through peer review, and then export for publication. In addition to conducting peer review, editorial teams can invite, manage, and correspond with authors and reviewers.
Funding
Pilcrow is a collaboration between MESH Research and the Public Philosophy Journal at Michigan State University.
The project is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (Grant #G-1910-07239).
Documentation
Pilcrow is an open source project. Documentation can be found at https://ccr.meshresearch.dev/.
Contact
Looking for updates on Pilcrow?
Questions? Feedback?