Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Aletheia?

Aletheia is a platform for disseminating preprints that aims to rethink how we communicate the discovery of knowledge. Unlike platforms such as OSF, SSRN, or arXiv, all research posted on Aletheia is first evaluated and critiqued by other researchers. However, unlike a traditional journal’s peer-review process, these reviews are made available to the public, and are not used for gatekeeping. 100% of original research submitted to Aletheia that abides by the platform’s content policies and completes the feedback process is posted for dissemination. All parts of the research production process—the original submission, the non-anonymous reviews, the response memo, and the revised submission—are posted transparently.

2. Can I submit my article to a peer-reviewed journal after posting to Aletheia?

Yes, although you should check the policies of the journal. In this sense, Aletheia is no different from any other preprint or working paper platform such as OSF, NBER, arXiv, or SSRN. In fact, all research is hosted on OSF. Aletheia provides the infrastructure for obtaining feedback from other researchers. You can consider submitting your entire Aletheia package—the research, non-anonymous reviews, and the response memo—to the journal. Journal editors can also peruse the Aletheia platform to solicit research for their journals.

3. Who should use Aletheia?

Aletheia is intended for a broad group of scholars. Some people would like to receive feedback on their research prior to submitting to a traditional peer-reviewed journal, and have limited opportunities to get feedback from professional networks. Other people may wish to forgo traditional journal publishing and use Aletheia to disseminate their research. Some scholars may wish to efficiently push expert-vetted research on timely topics into the public domain, and share such research with journalists. Likewise, scholars may desire to use Aletheia’s feedback process to bring their research findings into a public scholarly discussion on an important issue.

4. How does peer feedback work at Aletheia?

Researchers email the platform at aletheiaplatform(AT)gmail.com along with a list of suggested researchers or scholars who might provide feedback. Aletheia will source the reviews and provide them to the researcher. Reviews are non-anonymous—the goal is to approximate the transparency and openness of a research seminar. Researchers can also provide honoraria (tips) to pay reviewers (ex ante, ex post, or both) and compensate them for their time. Please consult your academic institution for whether these honoraria can be expensed to research accounts. Reviewers should consult their tax professionals to see how honoraria should be reported on their taxes. After receiving reviews, researchers will submit their responses to reviewers along with a revised submission. This revised submission, along with the rest of the production package, will then be posted to Aletheia. There will be no second-round revise and resubmit process. The goal is speedy review (within two weeks), and researchers can provide reviewers with incentives to return reviews quickly. If you are interested in volunteering to be a reviewer, please contact aletheiaplatform(AT)gmail.com.

5. How does ex post review work at Aletheia?

Any researcher can submit a comment on any posted research project. This option is also open to the original reviewers and the original author. Comments should be directly submitted to Aletheia at aletheiaplatform(AT)gmail.com. Comments will be screened for offensive or hateful language, and must pertain to the scientific and/or scholarly contribution of the article, but will not otherwise be screened for their substantive content.

6. Why is the platform called Aletheia and what are the core values?

Aletheia is the Greek goddess of truth, and her name has come to be associated with transparency and openness. This platform provides a model for research dissemination that has unique strengths and weaknesses relative to the traditional peer-reviewed journal. There is no gatekeeping to enforce quality and achieve truth. Rather, truth is achieved via transparency—the open process of argument, evidence, and critique within a free marketplace of ideas. Unlike existing preprint platforms, Aletheia includes a peer feedback process, which will provide information to consumers of research. Unlike most peer-reviewed journals, these reviews will be posted openly for the public. As noted above, Aletheia is a complement to—and not a substitute for—peer-reviewed journals that employ a traditional gatekeeping model. Researchers can submit work disseminated via this preprint platform to peer-reviewed journals, as they would with articles posted to SSRN, OSF, arXiv, or NBER.