One of the many ways in which the University of Kent’s academics can assist during the Coronavirus outbreak is for those with relevant expertise to sign up to the Rapid Review Network for COVID-19.
Dr Amir Hosein Sakhaei, Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering and Digital Arts is just one of many academic experts who has joined the voluntary “Call for Reviewers — Rapid Review Network for Covid-19” from “The Royal Society Open Science” which is a open source peer-reviewed publisher of high quality research across the entire range of science.
The journal is issuing a special call for Registered Report (RR) submissions that are relevant to COVID-19 in any field, including but not limited to biological, medical, economic, and psychological research.
The journal is seeking reviewers in all fields to help with this extraordinary effort by agreeing to review manuscripts within 24 to 48 hours after accepting a review request.
Registered Reports are a form of empirical article offered by more than 200 journals in which study proposals are peer reviewed and pre-accepted before research is undertaken. This article type offers a powerful tool for advancing research on COVID-19 by reducing publication bias and reporting bias in the growing evidence base.
You don’t need to be a virologist — research in a wide range of fields is relevant to COVID-19, including in maths, statistics and the social sciences. All expert reviewers are welcome, from PhD students to professors. Dr Sakhaei has registered his expertise in the area of maths, mathematical modelling and computational research and encourages colleagues to get involved in this knowledge based approach to tackling the pandemic.
This form of rapid review for Registered Reports has never been attempted, and for it to succeed, cooperation from academic experts is required.