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Department of Informatics Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies

Blockchain-Based Decentralized Peer Review System: Enhancing Transparency, Efficiency, and Fairness in Academic Publishing

Level: MA; MAP 
Responsible People:  Parminder Kaur Makode ,Yu Gao
Keywords: Decentralised science, Blockchain Technology, Decentralized Peer Review, Token Economy 

The peer review process is a fundamental aspect of academic publishing, ensuring that research is rigorously evaluated for quality, validity, and originality before it reaches the public domain. However, the current peer review system is fraught with several inefficiencies and challenges that hinder its effectiveness. These challenges include prolonged review times, lack of transparency, potential bias, and the risk of intellectual property theft. Reviewers often work without clear incentives, which can lead to delays and variability in the quality of reviews. Additionally, the anonymity of the review process, while necessary to prevent bias, can sometimes result in a lack of accountability, further complicating the process. 

   This master's thesis proposes the development of a Decentralized Peer Review System (DPRS) that leverages blockchain technology to address these issues. The DPRS aims to create a more transparent, efficient, and fair peer review process by introducing a token-based incentive mechanism and a dynamic reputation scoring system. The use of blockchain ensures that all transactions and interactions within the peer review process are immutable and transparent, reducing the chances of bias and ensuring that reviewers are held accountable for the quality and timeliness of their work. 

By decentralizing the peer review system, this research seeks to empower reviewers, streamline the review process, and ultimately enhance the quality and credibility of academic publications. The central research question is how blockchain and tokenization can be effectively utilized to improve the peer review process in academic publishing, making it more efficient, fair, and secure. 

Objectives 

  • Develop DPRS Platform: Create a web-based platform where reviewers stake tokens to participate in peer reviews, with performance tracked through a dynamic reputation system. 

  • Implement Token Economy: Design a token economy to incentivize timely and high-quality reviews while penalizing poor performance. 

Tools and Programming Requirements 

  • Blockchain Development: Utilize Solidity for smart contract development, and Ethereum with Layer-2 solutions like Polygon for scalability (free to choose). 

  • Web Platform: Develop using React.js (front-end) and Node.js (back-end), integrated with Web3.js for blockchain interaction (free to choose). 

  • Data Storage: free to choose 

References: 

  1. Azaria, A., Ekblaw, A., Vieira, T., & Lippman, A. (2016, August). Medrec: Using blockchain for medical data access and permission management. In 2016 2nd international conference on open and big data (OBD) (pp. 25-30). IEEE. 

  2. Gipp, B., Meuschke, N., & Gernandt, A. (2015). Decentralized trusted timestamping using the crypto currency bitcoin. arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.04015. 

  3. Tenorio-Fornés, A., Jacynycz, V., Llop-Vila, D., Sánchez-Ruiz, A., & Hassan, S. (2019). Towards a decentralized process for scientific publication and peer review using blockchain and IPFS. 

  4. Ducrée, J. (2020). Research–A blockchain of knowledge?. Blockchain: Research and applications, 1(1-2), 100005.