ScienceGuardians™ Guidelines for Estimating Fair Compensation for Peer Reviewers

For too long, peer reviewers—the very backbone of academic publishing—have been unjustly exploited by a system that demands their expertise, time, and scrutiny without offering fair compensation in return. Academic publishers have built billion-dollar empires, charging exorbitant article processing charges (APCs) and subscription fees, while expecting reviewers to carry the immense responsibility of safeguarding both scientific rigor and research integrity—typically without meaningful compensation.

This imbalance has not only created a deep ethical divide but has also contributed to the erosion of peer review quality, threatening the sustainability of academic publishing as a credible and trustworthy process. One side profits enormously; the other is left with uncompensated labor that is fundamental to ensuring the integrity of science.

👉 This must change.

At ScienceGuardians™, we believe exploitation has no place in the academic community. Recognizing and valuing the essential contributions of reviewers is critical to restoring fairness, trust, and sustainability in scholarly publishing. The ScienceGuardians™ Guidelines for Estimating Fair Compensation for Peer Reviewers were developed to help make this transition possible—proposing a fair, feasible, and industry-aligned framework for compensating peer reviewers.

By acknowledging the time, expertise, and responsibility involved in peer review, these guidelines advocate for a compensation range of $300 to $450 per review —a step toward a more respectable, equitable, and sustainable academic publishing ecosystem.

We invite journal editors, publishers, academic institutions, and researchers to embrace this call for reform. Together, we can build a system that upholds not only scientific excellence but also the rights and dignity of those who defend it.

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SG_EFC_25_05_01_Estimating_Fair_Compensation_for_Peer_Reviewers