Peer Community Journal: Scopus, Scope & Submission Guide

Quick Answer: What Is Peer Community Journal?

Peer Community Journal is an online, English-language scientific journal launched in 2021 and published by Peer Community In in France. It operates as a single multidisciplinary journal with thematic sections corresponding to the different Peer Communities In. The ISSN Portal confirms e-ISSN 2804-3871 and records the title as an active online journal.

The journal publishes only articles that have already been peer reviewed, accepted and recommended by a thematic PCI. After recommendation, authors may choose to publish the recommended version in Peer Community Journal without a second round of scientific peer review. The journal therefore combines preprint-based community peer review with a formal version of record.

Its scope spans fields represented by current PCIs, including life sciences, medical and health-related areas, physical and quantitative sciences, social sciences, archaeology, organization studies and other humanities-related fields. Researchers should not treat this broad scope as permission to submit any topic: the manuscript must first fit a relevant thematic PCI.

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Peer Community In, a not-for-profit organisation based in France.
• Identifier: e-ISSN/ISSN-L 2804-3871; supplied Scopus Source ID 21101230650.
• Scopus: the journal’s official site states that Peer Community Journal is indexed in Scopus.
• Open access: diamond open access, free for authors and readers, with CC BY 4.0 licensing.
• Submission pathway: preprint/open archive → thematic PCI evaluation → PCI recommendation → Peer Community Journal publication.
• Peer review: handled by thematic PCIs before transfer to the journal; the evaluation record is designed to be transparent.
• Open science: data, scripts and code are central requirements where relevant, with persistent and versioned repositories expected.
• Metrics: current CiteScore, SJR, SNIP, quartile and Journal Impact Factor should be verified in the relevant current database and reporting year rather than inferred from secondary sites.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• Peer Community Journal aims, scope and subject coverage
• Scopus status and other indexing evidence
• How to interpret missing or changing journal metrics
• Article types and who may find the journal suitable
• Thematic PCI selection and manuscript-journal fit
• Preprint, data, code and reproducibility requirements
• Peer-review workflow and transparent editorial record
• Formatting, files, declarations and reference preparation
• Diamond open access, copyright and publication fees
• Ethical publication-readiness support from Contentxprtz

Methodology and Source Note

This profile was prepared using journal-specific authoritative information: the official Peer Community Journal overview and policies, its instructions for authors, the official governance page, the ISSN Portal record, the DOAJ record, and the supplied Scopus Source ID. Journal policies, editorial teams, indexing and metrics can change, so authors should reconfirm the latest official information immediately before submission or institutional reporting.

Peer Community Journal Aims, Scope and Academic Role

The journal describes its aim as promoting and freely disseminating expertly peer-reviewed scientific knowledge. Its model is built around thematic PCIs that evaluate preprints in their own subject communities. The journal then provides a formal publication route for accepted and recommended work. This separates much of the scientific evaluation from the production of the journal version of record while keeping the editorial process connected to the research community.

The scope is intentionally broad because Peer Community Journal is the publication venue for an expanding set of thematic PCIs. The official journal site lists sections such as Animal Science, Archaeology, Ecology, Ecotoxicology & Environmental Chemistry, Evolutionary Biology, Forest & Wood Sciences, Genomics, Health & Movement Sciences, Infections, Mathematical & Computational Biology, Microbiology, Network Science, Nutrition, Neuroscience, Organization Studies, Paleontology, Plants, Psychology, Statistics & Machine Learning, Registered Reports and Zoology. The available sections can evolve as new PCIs are created.

Within that framework, the journal welcomes empirical and theoretical studies, work based on observations or existing data, verbal/computational/mathematical models, methodological studies, reviews, perspectives, opinions and comments. It also explicitly supports replication studies, negative results when the question and methods are sound, preregistration and registered reports. These statements should be read together with the current thematic PCI scope, because the relevant PCI is the first decision point.

Representative research areas

Based on current journal sections and official scope statements, potentially relevant areas include ecology, evolution, genomics, animal science, microbiology, infectious disease, environmental chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, health and movement science, quantitative biology, network science, statistics and machine learning, archaeology, organization studies, paleontology, plant research and zoology. This is guidance derived from the current section structure, not an exhaustive list of topics guaranteed to enter review.

Understanding Peer Community Journal Scopus Indexing and Metrics

The supplied journal record identifies Peer Community Journal as Scopus Source ID 21101230650, and the journal’s own website states that it is indexed in Scopus. That is the strongest basis for describing it as a Scopus-indexed journal in this profile. The official site also lists DOAJ, Google Scholar, Dimensions, Europe PMC and Semantic Scholar among its indexing/discovery services, while the ISSN Portal associates the journal with Scopus and Crossref among other services.

For institutional use, indexing should be checked at the time the evidence is needed. A university may ask whether the journal was covered in Scopus during a particular publication year, whether it is currently active, or whether it falls within an approved subject category. The journal’s Scopus Source ID is useful for that check because journal titles can be similar or change over time.

What about CiteScore, SJR, SNIP, quartile and Impact Factor?

Peer Community Journal explicitly says that it does not display citation metrics on its own website. This guide therefore does not present a current CiteScore, SJR, SNIP, quartile or Journal Impact Factor without a directly verifiable reporting-year source. Metric values can change annually, and a journal can have different quartiles across categories. If a PhD regulation, funding scheme or promotion rule requires a Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 designation, researchers should record the database, metric year and subject category rather than using an undated statement such as “the journal is Q1.”

Publisher, Governance and Editorial Responsibility

Peer Community Journal belongs to and is published and funded by Peer Community In. The journal is a member of the Centre Mersenne for Open Scientific Publishing. Its official governance information describes an international editorial board consisting of the managing boards of thematic PCIs, an executive board drawn from the PCI association, a managing coordinator and volunteer formatting support.

The current official people page lists Denis Bourguet, Anne Daebler and Thomas Guillemaud as executive-board members, and Elisa Chailler as managing coordinator. Because board membership can change, authors should treat the journal’s live governance page as the authoritative reference. Importantly, the editorial board validates decisions made through thematic PCI evaluation and remains accountable for published content.

What Does the Journal Publish?

Peer Community Journal’s official instructions describe a flexible range of article types, including research articles, reviews, comments, opinion papers, data papers, technical notes and computer notes. Registered reports are also part of the broader PCI/PCJ model and should be submitted through PCI Registered Reports. The journal’s scope material also welcomes methodological studies, replications and well-designed studies reporting negative results.

The scientific quality threshold is not defined by novelty alone. The model emphasizes whether a competent recommender considers the work interesting enough to evaluate and whether the study is methodologically and ethically sound. Authors should therefore assess not only topic fit but also reproducibility, data/code availability, transparent reporting and the ability to defend study design decisions.

Is Peer Community Journal a Good Match for Your Research?

The journal may be relevant to PhD scholars, early-career researchers, faculty members, interdisciplinary teams and professional researchers whose work fits an active thematic PCI and who are comfortable with preprint-first, open-science publishing. Academic status itself does not determine fit. A strong candidate manuscript is one that can enter a relevant PCI community, provide the materials needed for rigorous evaluation, respond transparently to reviewer comments and meet the final journal formatting requirements after recommendation.

Journal-fit checklist

• Can you identify a current thematic PCI whose scope clearly matches the manuscript?
• Is the work suitable for public deposition as a preprint or in an open archive?
• Are the research question, methods and contribution strong enough to interest a competent recommender?
• Can you provide raw data, scripts, code or other reproducibility materials where relevant?
• Can you justify sample size and explain experimental or analytical procedures clearly?
• Are financial conflicts of interest absent, and can other conflicts be transparently declared?
• Does the article type fit the thematic PCI and PCJ policy?
• Can you meet the final formatting, reference-export and declaration requirements?
• Does your institution recognise the journal’s current indexing status for your specific purpose?

As a practical publication-readiness step, compare your manuscript with several recent papers in the most relevant PCJ section. Examine research questions, article types, data-sharing practices, recommendation records and final article structure. This is not an official acceptance criterion, but it helps authors test whether their work resembles what the community is actively evaluating and publishing.

Preparing and Submitting a Manuscript

Step 1: Deposit the manuscript openly

The official workflow begins by depositing the article on a preprint server or in an open archive and obtaining a DOI or another persistent identifier. The journal names services such as bioRxiv, HAL, Zenodo, arXiv and OSF Preprints as examples. Authors should choose a repository appropriate to their field and confirm its versioning and licensing options.

Step 2: Prepare data, scripts and code for review

Data, statistical scripts, command lines and simulation code must be available to reviewers and recommenders during evaluation and, after recommendation, to readers. The journal expects correctly versioned deposits with a DOI or another persistent identifier where applicable. A transient Git URL alone is not treated as a permanent archival identifier.

Step 3: Submit to the right thematic PCI

The preprint is submitted to a thematic PCI according to subject fit. Each thematic PCI has its own author guide. The PCI stage determines whether the preprint enters review and whether it is eventually recommended. The journal makes clear that not every submitted preprint is guaranteed evaluation; at least one competent recommender must consider it suitable and interesting enough to handle.

Step 4: Revise through PCI peer review

Recommenders identify reviewers, collect reports and make editorial recommendations. There may be one or several rounds of revision. The journal states that the process aims to obtain at least two reliable review reports before an editorial decision on the original version. Authors can follow the evaluation online, and the eventual recommendation links to the review history.

Step 5: Transfer the recommended article to Peer Community Journal

After the thematic PCI accepts and recommends the article, authors can opt to publish it in Peer Community Journal. They complete a basic journal form and upload the formatted manuscript. This is the point at which the work becomes a formal journal article rather than merely a recommended preprint.

Formatting, References and Required Files

The final PCJ article must follow the journal’s standard format. The official instructions say the text should begin with the Introduction and should not include a cover page, header, footer, line number or page number because the journal adds publication elements later. Templates are available for Word, Google Docs and LaTeX workflows.

Mandatory sections include Acknowledgements, Funding, Conflict of interest disclosure, Data, script, code and supplementary information availability, and References. The Acknowledgements section must also identify the relevant PCI recommendation using the journal’s required wording and recommendation DOI. Authors should consult the current template rather than copying wording from an older article.

References are an operationally important part of submission because PCJ asks authors for a BibTeX export of the references used in the article. The journal uses structured reference data to prepare metadata and declare the article correctly to services such as Crossref. Authors should therefore clean their reference library before export and make sure citations in the text and reference list match in both directions.

Presubmission file checklist

• Correctly formatted PDF of the article
• Editable DOC, DOCX, ODT or TEX source file
• BibTeX export containing the article’s references
• PNG or JPEG illustration for the article page with appropriate rights
• Persistent identifiers for data, scripts and code deposits where relevant
• Compatible figure formats and no unsupported embedded image types
• Complete declarations and consistent in-text/reference-list citations

Peer Review, Editorial Screening and What Happens After Recommendation

The scientific peer review occurs at the thematic PCI. Recommenders perform a role comparable to handling editors: they decide whether to take responsibility for evaluation, invite reviewers, interpret reports and propose decisions. The relevant PCI managing board validates editorial decisions and checks conflicts of interest. Reviewers and recommenders must disclose or avoid conflicts under PCI rules.

The model is notably transparent. When an article is recommended, the PCI publishes a citable recommendation with a DOI connected to the evaluation process. Reviews, editorial decisions and author replies can be accessed through the thematic PCI record. This makes the scholarly discussion around the article more visible than in many conventional closed-review systems.

After transfer to PCJ, the journal checks formatting and metadata, prepares structured reference metadata, adds publication elements to the proof and sends proofs to the authors for validation. The journal indicates that this production work is handled by its managing coordinator and volunteer researchers rather than outsourced commercial production teams.

Open Access, Copyright and Publication Fees

Peer Community Journal is a diamond open-access journal: readers do not pay to access articles and authors do not pay an APC to publish. The official journal site and DOAJ both confirm the no-fee model. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, and authors retain copyright and unrestricted publishing rights.

The model is supported by public research institutions and other academic organisations. For authors, the practical implication is that “no APC” does not mean “no preparation work.” The journal shifts more responsibility toward authors for manuscript formatting, repository preparation, data/code documentation and clean reference exports. Budgeting is therefore less about publication charges and more about time, reproducibility preparation and editorial readiness.

Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

Peer Community In states that it subscribes to COPE principles, and PCJ refers to additional guidance from EASE and ICMJE. The journal uses iThenticate/CrossCheck for plagiarism screening and requires appropriate authorship, funding acknowledgement, conflict disclosure and permissions for copyrighted material.

Financial conflicts of interest are not accepted under PCI rules. Other conflicts must be declared and managed. The journal also expects the distinction between original and previously published data or material to be clear. Prior posting as the preprint used for PCI review does not count as prior journal publication, but the history of the work should be transparent.

The open-science policy is also an integrity policy: authors should make data and analytical materials available in a form that allows other researchers to understand and, where feasible, reuse or rerun the work. Ethical editing can improve clarity, structure and consistency, but it must not fabricate evidence, citations, data, reviewer identities or authorship contributions.

Common Reasons a Manuscript May Not Progress

Some risks are journal-specific; others are general scholarly-publishing issues. A manuscript may fail to progress if no appropriate thematic PCI exists, if no competent recommender is willing to handle it, if the question or methodology is not persuasive, or if required open-science materials are unavailable. Serious conflicts of interest, ethical problems, plagiarism, opaque data practices or a mismatch between the claimed conclusions and evidence can also undermine evaluation.

At the journal-transfer stage, formatting and metadata problems can delay production even after scientific recommendation. Authors should therefore separate two readiness questions: Is the science ready for PCI evaluation? and Is the accepted manuscript technically ready for PCJ publication?

A Practical Publication-Readiness Workflow

1. Identify the most suitable thematic PCI before finalising the manuscript.
2. Read that PCI’s current author instructions and recent recommendations.
3. Deposit a stable preprint and prepare reproducibility materials.
4. Check authorship, funding, conflicts, permissions and ethics documentation.
5. Submit to the thematic PCI and respond carefully to peer review.
6. After recommendation, format the article using the current PCJ template.
7. Export and clean the article’s BibTeX references.
8. Prepare final declarations, data/code availability statements and the page illustration.
9. Complete the PCJ submission form and validate proofs.
10. Retain records of the preprint, recommendation DOI, review history, accepted version and version of record.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Authors Preparing for Peer Community Journal

Preparing for this journal can involve two different editorial stages: strengthening the manuscript for rigorous thematic PCI evaluation and formatting the recommended article for PCJ publication. Contentxprtz can support both stages through ethical academic editing, proofreading, language polishing, reference consistency, journal-format alignment, manuscript assessment and reviewer-response editing.

For example, an editor can help clarify a methods section, identify inconsistent terminology, improve the readability of a data-availability statement, check whether claims are supported by cited evidence, or help format responses to reviewers in professional academic English. For authors working in English as an additional language, this can reduce avoidable communication barriers without changing the underlying scientific contribution.

Contentxprtz cannot influence recommenders or editors, guarantee peer-review outcomes, secure Scopus indexing, promise publication, or create evidence that the authors did not produce. Researchers remain responsible for the study design, data, analysis, interpretations, authorship, citations and final submission. Explore journal publication-readiness support when professional manuscript preparation would be useful.

Summary

Peer Community Journal is a distinctive multidisciplinary journal built around the Peer Community In evaluation system. It is published by Peer Community In, has e-ISSN 2804-3871, began publication in 2021, operates under diamond open access and states that it is indexed in Scopus. Its submission route requires authors to work through a thematic PCI before the article can enter PCJ as a journal publication.

The strongest candidates are not simply manuscripts seeking a no-fee Scopus outlet. They are studies that fit an active PCI community, can be openly deposited, meet demanding reproducibility and ethics expectations, and can withstand transparent peer review. Authors should verify current indexing and metrics for their institutional purpose, follow the live author instructions, and prepare both the science and the final publication files carefully.

Conclusion: Should You Consider Peer Community Journal?

Peer Community Journal may be a strong match for researchers who value open access, transparent peer review, community-led evaluation and reproducible research, provided their manuscript fits a current thematic PCI. Before proceeding, confirm the latest PCI scope, author instructions, indexing record and any institution-specific journal criteria. Careful scope alignment and manuscript preparation matter more than chasing an undated metric or assuming that Scopus inclusion alone guarantees suitability.

Professional editing or publication-readiness support can help authors present their work clearly and meet technical requirements, but publication decisions remain entirely with the PCI and journal editorial process.