PaperScore

PaperScore is the first Decentralized Academic Journal and publication platform that replaces the editorial board with a collective intelligence algorithm. This algorithm is implemented in a computer code and controls the review process. PaperScore accepts manuscripts from all disciplines, particularly from interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies. The current research publication industry is locked into a three-sided network effect between authors, institutions, and journals. Institutions and authors want to publish in well-known journals, while journals want to publish works of well-known authors and institutions who have published in well-known journals. This can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. Furthermore, many valuable research findings and studies are not published due to some editorial biases such as Significance Bias and Discipline Bias. PaperScore provides a home for such homeless studies and papers. PaperScore aims to break this obsolete ecosystem by completely decentralizing the review process. Once an author submits a manuscript to PaperScore, the backend code randomly selects up to five potential reviewers based on the manuscript’s keywords, citations, and referrals. Each potential reviewer receives an email and decides whether or not to evaluate the manuscript. Reviewers also have the option to refer manuscripts to other potential reviewers they deem to be experts. The next person will also have the same option. Based on the small-world phenomenon, each chain will get to a suitable reviewer in fewer than six referrals on average. Most likely, it will be fewer than three referrals if there are proper incentives and a purposeful randomization formula incorporates relevant information.