Peer Community In vs Unjournal

How Peer Community In works

PCI is organised in thematic communities (its site lists 21). A recommender, acting as editor, handles each submitted preprint and bases the decision on at least two reviews. If the preprint is recommended, the recommendation is published on the community's site with a DOI and the reviews are made public; reviewers may sign them or stay anonymous, and recommenders always sign. If it is not recommended, the reviews go only to the authors.

A recommended preprint can then be published in Peer Community Journal, a diamond open access journal, or sent to one of the 100+ journals PCI lists as PCI-friendly. The whole process is free for authors and readers.

How Unjournal works

1. You upload your paper (PDF or Word). It is read for the specific questions that need an expert, and nothing is sent to anyone yet.
2. Researchers whose own work is closest to those questions are found in the global publication record, and you approve the anonymized shortlist.
3. They review it double-blind, commenting on the passages that matter.
4. You revise, and the same reviewers check the revision against their comments.
5. Once at least two endorse it and none says “not yet”, you can publish it on the Unjournal preprint journal with its reviews. You keep the copyright.

Uploading and seeing the shortlist are free, publishing is free, and the review is paid once it is delivered, with a money-back guarantee.

The real differences

Cost. PCI is free. Unjournal's review is paid on delivery, with a money-back guarantee; uploading and publishing are free.

Who runs the review. At PCI a volunteer recommender from the thematic community chooses the reviewers. On Unjournal reviewers are matched to the paper's questions and the author approves them.

Outcome. PCI recommends or declines; only recommended preprints get public reviews. On Unjournal there is no rejection verdict: the author revises with the same reviewers until they endorse it.

Coverage. PCI covers the fields of its thematic communities. Unjournal searches the whole publication record.

When PCI is the better fit

If a PCI community covers your field, PCI is free end to end, its recommendation carries a DOI, and Peer Community Journal or a PCI-friendly journal can publish the result. Unjournal fits better if no community covers your topic, if you want double-blind review with reviewers you approve, or if you want the reviewers to work with you through the revision rather than give a recommend or decline verdict.