Takeaways from the First Year of Open Peer Review at<i>JNeurosci</i>

<i>The Journal of Neuroscience</i> launched an open peer review (OPR) initiative in late 2023 to enhance transparency and accountability in scientific publishing. Analysis of 740 manuscripts and 1,490 reviews revealed that 81.4% of authors opted to share rebuttal letters, with increasing participation over time (67.6% in Dec 2023 to 94.4% in Aug 2024). Reviewer participation was lower (66.8%) but stable, with higher opt-in rates for longer, higher-quality reviews. Geographical analysis of author and reviewer institutions showed that authors from North American and European institutions had greater OPR opt-in rates, authors from Asian institutions had lower opt-in rates, and reviewers from North American institutions had lower opt-in rates compared with the average rates across regions. Further, analysis of manuscript subdiscipline showed it to be predictive of OPR opt-in rates, e.g., authors of manuscripts in cellular or molecular neuroscience were less likely to opt-in compared with the average across subdisciplines. Overall, OPR acceptance is growing, reflecting a positive shift toward open science.