Building trust and engagement in peer review

Dr. Bahar Mehmani is Reviewer Experience Lead in the Global STM journals at Elsevier. She works on several peer review initiatives and projects, all of which are designed to recognize reviewers' contribution to the progress of science. Bahar is co-chair of Peer Review Week 2020 Events and International Outreach committee, Vice-chair of the peer review committee and council member of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE). She received her PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 2010. Before joining Elsevier, she was a postdoc researcher at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL).

Bernadett obtained her DPhil in Systems Biology from the University of Oxford and subsequently worked at the University College London Cancer Institute as a postdoctoral researcher. She was an editor of Nature Communications for four and a half years before joining Cell Systems as an editor in May 2020.

Shawnna Buttery brings her broad expertise in publishing and her curiosity for all things biology as the Lead Editor of STAR Protocols. Shawnna’s training in the laboratory was in cell biology, studying the cytoskeleton in nematodes as a graduate student at Florida State and in budding yeast as a postdoc at Dana-Faber Cancer Institute. In 2012, she joined Elsevier as a Scientific Editor for the journal BBA and then moved to Cell Press as an editor at Cell Reports. She launched STAR Protocols in 2019.

Simona Fiorani is the Lead Editor for Cell Press’s new interdisciplinary open-access journal iScience. Simona comes to Cell Press after a half-decade of editing at Nature and a postdoc at Cancer Research UK. Though her background is in cancer research and DNA damage, her curiosity for new scientific advances knows no true discipline. In this interview, we talk to Simona about the secret joys of being an editor and how others can hope to follow her career path.

Sri Narasimhan trained in microbiology, molecular genetics and metabolism at the National University of Singapore, UMASS Medical School and Harvard Medical School before joining Cell in 2012. As Deputy Editor, she is involved in journal strategy, content and team management, while also leading the journal’s diversity as well as gender equity efforts. She covers all aspects of the journal’s topic scope, with focus on microbiology, infectious disease, immunology and physiology. Sri also leads cross-journal communication initiatives across Cell Press. She loves interacting with the broader community, especially junior PIs, postdocs and students and believes it is never too early to talk about science or ideas. Outside work, she loves space, spice, travel and being a mom to two curious girls.