Stuttgart, September 2025 – Peer review is a crucial part of the scientific publishing process, and one of the core challenges for any journal is speeding up the review process without compromising quality or integrity. To address these callenges, Thieme introduced a new peer review process in the chemical journal SYNLETT in 2017. Select Crowd Review (SCR) was developed in collaboration with Nobel Laureate Benjamin List, who was Editor-in-Chief at the time. SCR is an innovative system that combines the rigor of traditional peer review with the speed and collaboration of a preselected group of experts who evaluate manuscripts together. Today, SCR is successfully used across six additional Thieme journals in the chemical and medical field.
A Fresh Approach to Peer Review
“Select Crowd Review has proven to be a secure, fast, and substantive way of evaluating manuscripts in today’s fast-moving scientific world,” said Kathleen Too, Senior Vice President of Thieme Chemistry. “It is a solution that strengthens the quality of research publishing while saving valuable time.”
Results and Benefits
Since January 2024, more than 640 manuscripts have been reviewed via SCR, supported by a growing community of over 850 scientists. Compared to traditional peer review, turnaround times can be up to 73% faster, without compromising quality, as shown by Thieme’s data from SYNLETT.
Authors consistently emphasize the speed of the process, the clarity and usefulness of the comments received, and even that it is “exactly how peer review should work.”
The advantages are evident for all parties involved. For authors, SCR means faster decisions, less bias, and more diverse perspectives. Reviewers benefit from a collaborative and interactive process that is also less time-consuming. SCR is also a perfect way where less experienced reviewers can learn from more experienced ones. Some journals have topic specific sub-crowds to ensure that only reviewers that fall into the respective field of expertise are invited to review the manuscript.
Editors benefit from receiving a larger number of reviews, which helps avoid delays caused by conflicting opinions from just two reviewers. It also reduces the effort needed to find suitable reviewers for each manuscript, as the expert group is already curated.
“Crowd-based peer review helps us balance efficiency with integrity,” said Veronika Spinka, Senior Vice President of Thieme Science. “The experience shows that SCR delivers substantial feedback at least equivalent to traditional peer review, with the added benefit of speed.”
How It Works
In SCR, 50–100 pre-selected experts are invited to review manuscripts through a secure, anonymized platform. The exact size of the review group and the length of the review window are flexible, allowing editors to adapt the process to the needs of each submission. Reviewers remain anonymous to authors and to one another, while editors oversee the process. The process supports „single-anonymized“ as well as “double-anonymized” standards. Each participant decides whether to contribute, and those who do can interact and comment in real time.
The review period usually lasts 3 to 10 days depending on the journal, after which the manuscript is removed from the platform. Editors then evaluate the collective feedback, make a decision, and forward the consolidated comments to the authors.
SCR is now in use at Thieme journals SYNLETT, Synthesis, SynOpen, Sustainability & Circularity Now, International Journal of Sports Medicine, The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon and Roefo.
All in all, Thieme emphasizes the advantages of Select Crowd Review for the scientific community: a group of experts can collaborate and provide feedback at the same time, and their different perspectives help improve the quality of published content. The accelerated publication process also supports the rapid dissemination of new scientific knowledge.