Review models
Checked. This page has been checked by the eLife Pathways team. See the note below for how. Converted from docs.kotahi.community/getting-started/review.html. Confirmed by the eLife Pathways product manager, September 2026. This page describes configurable capability rather than screens, so it was checked against the product rather than against a running instance.
Kotahi supports a wide range of peer review models. Every model below is a configuration choice, set per group — so a publisher, journal or community running on Kotahi picks the model that suits it, and two groups on the same installation can work differently.
Options include:
- single-blind review - reviewers know the author’s identity but their identity is hidden from the author
- double-blind review - the identities of both the author and reviewers are hidden from each other
- open review - the identities of the authors and reviewers are known to each other
- collaborative review - reviewers can discuss the submission together and collaborate on a review. This can be moderated or unmoderated.
- community self-review - the review process allows the community to self-select as reviewers without editor assignments. Often used for preprint reviews.
- multiple rounds - as many iterative rounds of review as needed with the same or new reviewers each round (typical for Journals)
- rolling submissions - authors can update submissions during an active review round if enabled (this has proven useful for some preprint review use cases)
These are not mutually exclusive, and they are not fixed at install time. A group can combine models, and change its choice later — the review model is a setting, not a development project.