# Peer community in animal science: a free open science publication model

Rafael Muñoz-Tamayo, K.B. Barragán-Fonseca, Mohammed Gagaoua, R.

Gervais, Florence Gondret, F. Meurens, C. Nawroth, S.A. Rafat, Y.

Ramayo-Caldas

► To cite this version:

Rafael Muñoz-Tamayo, K.B. Barragán-Fonseca, Mohammed Gagaoua, R. Gervais, Florence Gondret, Sylvain Lerch. 11. Workshop on Modelling Nutrient Digestion and Utilization in Farm Animals (Modnut 2025), Sep 2025, Engelberg, Switzerland. Animal - Science proceedings, 16 (3), pp.466-467, 2025, Proceedings of the 11th Workshop on Modelling Nutrient Digestion and Utilization in Farm Animals (Modnut 2025). 10.1016/j.anscip.2025.07.297. hal-05244515

HAL Id: hal-05244515

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05244515v1

Submitted on 8 Sep 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
doi: 10.1016/j.anscip.2025.07.296

50. Peer community in animal science: a free open science publication model

R. Muñoz-Tamayo<sup>a</sup>, K.B. Barragán-Fonseca<sup>b</sup>, M. Gagaoua<sup>c</sup>, R. Gervais<sup>d</sup>, F. Gondret<sup>c</sup>, F. Meurens<sup>e</sup>, C. Nawroth<sup>f</sup>, S.A. Rafat<sup>g</sup>, Y. Ramayo-Caldas<sup>h</sup>

<sup>a</sup>Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, AgroParisTech, UMR Modélisation Systémique Appliquée aux Ruminants, 91120 Palaiseau, France

<sup>b</sup>Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Sede Bogotá. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences. Bogotá, Colombia

<sup>c</sup> PEGASE, INRAE, Institut Agro, 35590 Saint-Gilles, France

<sup>d</sup>Department of Animal Sciences, Laval University, Québec G1V 0A6, Canada

<sup>e</sup>Centre de Recherche en Infectiologie Porcine et Avicole, Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, QC J2S 2M2, Canada

<sup>f</sup>Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2, Dummerstorf, Germany

<sup>g</sup>Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

<sup>h</sup>Departament de Genètica i Millora Animal, Institut de Recerca y Tecnologia Agrarualimentàries (IRTA), Caldes de Montbui, Spain

* Corresponding author: Rafael Muñoz-Tamayo. E-mail: rafael.munoz-tamayo@inrae.fr

The implementation of Open Science (OS) practices aims to ensure accessibility, reproducibility and transparency of research. The adoption of OS practices in animal science is gaining momentum, but it needs to be firmly established. In addition to their general academic, ethical and societal benefits, OS practices can strengthen adherence to the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) principle for ethical research on animals (Nawroth & Krause 2022).

Muñoz-Tamayo et al. (2022) have proposed seven steps to improve the adoption of OS practices in the field of animal science including the sharing of data, codes and mathematical models. The proposed OS practices also include bibliodiversity (diversity of publication models and of those acting in scientific publishing) that encourages the development of equitable publishing models to allow the democratization of knowledge and the minimization of the costs that institutions assign to scientific publications. In line with this practice, we promote the Peer Community In (PCI) Animal Science initiative (https://animsciŁpeercommunityin.org/), which represents an alternative to the current publication system under the umbrella of the Peer Community In (PCI) project (https://peercommunityin.org/). PCI is a non-profit and non-commercial organization run by scientists for scientists. All costs are kept as low as possible. It is supported by more than 90 universities and research institutions worldwide and it promotes diversity, equity and inclusion in scholarly communications.

PCI Animal Science is an international community of researchers in animal science and related areas promoting OA and research transparency. Although PCI Animal Science is not a scientific journal, it operates similarly with editors (here recommenders) and reviewers. PCI Animal Science performs rigorous open reviews of preprints deposited on repositories such as bioRxiv, HAL, OSF and Zenodo from a wide range of research topics related to animal science. Based on independent peer reviews (at least two scientists working in the field of research), a recommender decides whether an article is recommendable or not. The recommendation process is open access and free for authors and readers. Currently, the PCI Animal Science community has 80 recommenders from 24 countries. Recommended preprints are citable stand-alone articles of high scientific value that do not need publication in traditional journals. However, if the authors wish, they can publish their recommended preprint at no cost in the Peer Community Journal - PCJ (https://peercommunityjournal.org/section/animsci/), which is indexed in various databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Europe PMC, and Google Scholar. PCI and its journal PCJ are part of the Diamond Open Access galaxy where authors and readers pay nothing to read and publish articles. Authors can also choose to submit their recommended articles to PCI-friendly journals (i.e., journals that consider the PCI evaluation in their own review processes) or to other journals accepting preprints. The community's interest to have their work submitted to and reviewed by PCI Animal Science has increased steadily. Here, we will present the workflow of the evaluation of manuscripts by PCI Animal Science and the advantages, for all the community, of adopting this new model of publishing scientific results.
**References:**

Nawroth, C., Krause, E.T., 2022. The academic, societal and animal welfare benefits of open science for animal science. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9, 810989. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.810989.

Muñoz-Tamayo, R., Nielsen, B.L., Gagaoua, M., Gondret, F., Krause, E.T., Morgavi, D.P., Olsson, I.A.S., Pastell, M., Taghipoor, M., Tedeschi, L., Veissier, I., Nawroth, C., 2022. Seven steps to enhance open science practices in animal science. PNAS Nexus 1, pgac106. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasexus/pgac106.