A Case Study on Blockchain-based Anonymous Reviewer Incentive Token (BARIT)
Pratiksha Shrestha, Suman Bhunia, Arthur Carvalho, Chad S. Anderson, Gabe Lee · 2024
Peer review is an integral part of academic publication and is necessary to maintain high standards and novelty of published research. Despite its importance, peer reviewers are rarely provided incentives, leading to journals having difficulty finding reviewers inclined to accept invitations and submit reviews on time. This paper proposes a Blockchain-based Anonymous Reviewer Incentive Token (BARIT) to incentivize peer reviewers. BARIT introduces flexible incentive schemes to provide both recognition and tangible benefits for the reviewers' contribution while preserving the anonymity of reviewers. Using blockchain technology to record reward tokens ensures their permanence and acceptance across different publishers. Incentive models are designed to encourage the involvement of researchers as reviewers, reduce reviewer refusal rates, and prompt the timely submission of review reports.