(131) The Medical Librarian Peer Reviewer Database: Connecting Editors with Experienced Librarians

Background: The problem of low-quality systematic reviews being published deserves action from all stakeholders: authors, editors, peer reviewers, funders, and readers. Librarians frequently find design flaws and gaps in the reporting of searches in published systematic reviews. A 2019 study showed that many medical librarians are in principle willing to peer review manuscripts of systematic reviews, but few librarians have been asked to perform that service (https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0083-5 -- unblinded citation to be provided).

Description: We developed a tool to match two communities: editors in need of peer reviewers for evidence synthesis manuscripts and medical librarians willing to share their expertise in searching and reporting. Modeled on the successful Early Career Reviewer Database, the Medical Librarian Peer Reviewer Database offers easy registration for librarians and the opportunity to highlight their publications -- evidence for their qualifications as peer reviewers. Editors can request access to the database to easily locate librarians to peer review manuscripts. The tool follows principles of usability and accessibility and leverages a free, already-familiar platform. It will meet the practical need, not yet solved by existing peer reviewing platforms, for a pool of peer reviewers with information retrieval expertise. The Medical Librarian Peer Reviewer Database will also raise awareness of the value that librarians add in the peer review process.

Conclusion: Our pilot database is live at https://sites.google.com/view/MLPRdatabase/. We intend to offer a soft launch in February 2020 and anticipate presenting information about reactions from librarians and editors, as well as preliminary usage analytics, at MLA 2020.