About the pyOpenSci Open Peer Review Process

Our open peer review process supports scientists getting credit for the work invested in open Python tools. It also supports standardization of packaging and improved package visibility.

Ready to Submit a Package for Review?

You're in the right place! Learn about the steps to submit a package for open peer review in our guidebook.

View our Author Guide

Want to Review a Python Package for Us?

We could use your help! Fill our our reviewer form. We will contact you if we have a package that we need reviewers for. It's OK if you've never reviewed a package before! We'll walk you through it.

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See Our Review Process in Action

Our reviewers happen in GitHub issues. This means that anyone can check in on any part of any review and read all of the conversation. Check it out.

See Open Reviews

Why Peer Review for Python Scientific Software?

Peer review of Python scientific software addresses several challenges in the open source community:

Citations Support Credit & Acknowledgement: Peer review provides credit and acknowledgement for the hard work invested in creating and supporting core tools that support open science workflows.
Standard Packaging & Documentation: Currently there are numerous ways to create a Python package. Peer review enforces standards thus promoting standardization of Python packaging across the scientific Python ecosystem.
Removed Redundancy: Peer review addresses the issue of multiple tools on pyPi that perform similar tasks but have varying levels of documenation, support and maintainence. One maintained package that is broadly useful and maintained will help scientists select tools that they can rely on.
Long Term Maintenance: Package maintainers often use their free time to work on Python tools. Once a package is reviewed by pyOpenSci we will keep in touch with the maintainer to ensure continued maintainance of the tool. If a maintainer needs to step down, we will try to find someone new to take over, or sunset the tool as needed.
Community: At the core of peer review is community around the tools that scientists need to process their data.

Who can submit a package?

pyOpenSci packages are community developed, submitted and reviewed. Anyone is welcome to submit a package to pyOpenSci to be reviewed. Once the package is reviewed, and accepted, pyOpenSci will promote it as a peer-reviewed tool for science!

How do I decide whether to submit to you or the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS)

You don’t have to chose between pyOpenSci and JOSS. We have a collaboration with JOSS where you can submit your package to us for review. If your package is accepted and if it is in scope for JOSS, it will then be fast tracked through their review process; they will only review your paper.md file. Consider this a win-win!