of reviewer invitations are now declined. Editors send dozens of invitations to secure two reviewers. Reviewer fatigue has become structural, not occasional.
Est. 2026
Open Access · CC-BY 4.0 · Signed Peer Review
An open access, peer-reviewed scientific journal
Peer review is breaking. Academic publishing with it.
The Meridian is an open-access peer-reviewed journal for healthcare and biomedical research, and a working laboratory for sustainable scholarly publishing. We compensate reviewers as co-creators, publish signed peer reviews with citable DOIs, and automate the labor that slows publishing down, so humans can focus on what matters.
The Meridian is the first of its kind: a journal designed as a shared experiment, built by the academic community and studied as it runs. Authors, reviewers, and editors co-create the work and the process around it, with every contribution named and acknowledged. An evaluation framework is built in: as papers move through The Meridian, we research what serves science and what a sustainable publishing system should look like.
Rigorous. Transparent. Efficient.
Paid reviewers
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Published reviews with DOIs
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14-day target to first decision
Covering clinical medicine, public health, epidemiology, health informatics, health services research, biostatistics, and translational research. International submissions welcomed from all regions.
§ 00 · What we are responding to
The evidence that the current system cannot continue
The word editors themselves now use to describe the workload of running peer review at scale, on top of academic duties.
Most universities have removed peer review from academic workload models. The work that keeps science honest no longer counts toward a career.
The Meridian was built as a working laboratory: we do not assume we have the answer. We test sustainable models of peer review and academic publishing, and study them as the journal runs.
Built as a non-profit. Reviewers compensated. Authors waived if they cannot pay. Pricing covers real costs of publishing, not profit extraction.
§ 01 · What makes The Meridian different
Six commitments we make to every paper
Free to read, affordable to publish
Every article is open access under CC BY 4.0, with no paywall. Article processing charges are kept significantly below the industry average, with waivers available for authors from low-income countries and early-career researchers. Confidential need-based waivers are also available on request — no one is turned away for inability to pay. Reading is free. Publishing should not be a privilege of well-funded labs.
CC BY 4.0 · confidential waivers
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The rubric fits the work
Every article type is peer-reviewed against standards appropriate to its purpose: empirical studies for replicability and validity, reviews for transparency of method, commentaries for clarity of argument. We hold each format to its own bar, and never criticise a commentary for lacking data or an editorial for lacking limitations.
Standards · appropriate to purpose
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Reviewers aren't anonymous free labor
Peer reviewers are named contributors. Every review gets its own DOI, appears alongside the published article, and counts as a citable scholarly contribution. Reviewers are compensated for their expertise.
Named · cited · paid
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Automated checks catch what peer review can't
Every submission is screened for plagiarism, image manipulation, reference fabrication, statistical inconsistency, and reporting guideline compliance, before peer review begins. Our systems verify every reference against PubMed, Crossref, OpenAlex, and Google Scholar. Humans handle methodology, significance, and editorial judgment. No automated accept/reject decisions. Ever.
Humans judge. Systems verify.
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See not just the paper, see how it got there
Double-blind review during evaluation protects against demonstrated biases. After acceptance, peer reviews are published alongside every article with the reviewer's consent, signed by name when chosen or attributed anonymously otherwise. Readers see not just the final paper. They see how it got there.
Reviews · revisions · visible
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A journal, and a study of journals
The Meridian is both a journal and a study of journals. We measure how our own process performs: the time it takes, the experience it creates, the science it produces, and we publish what we learn. The community helps us understand what a sustainable publishing system can look like.
Measure · learn · publish
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§ 02 · From submission to publication
The editorial pipeline, rewired
Step 01
Submit
Upload your manuscript in any format. Metadata is extracted automatically, the article type is identified, and any gaps are flagged, missing ethics statements, incomplete author information, absent reporting guideline checklists. No more 47-field web forms.
Step 02
Integrity Screening
Automated integrity checks run in seconds: plagiarism detection, image analysis, reference verification, statistical consistency, and reporting guideline compliance (CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE, and more). Transparent results shared with you instantly.
Step 03
Editorial Triage
An editor reviews the screening report and decides whether the work fits the scope and is ready for peer review. The vast majority of submissions move forward; the small number that do not are returned with clear reasoning so authors can address gaps or submit elsewhere.
Step 04
Peer Review
Two to three expert reviewers evaluate your work. They're compensated for their time and credited as co-creators. Reviews are structured around methodology, significance, reproducibility, and clarity.
Step 05
Co-creation
This is what makes The Meridian different. Reviewer suggestions are classified automatically: routine edits are drafted for your approval; substantive scientific changes are flagged for your direct revision. You stay in control. Automation handles the formatting labor.
Step 06
Publish
Your article goes live with a Crossref DOI, a plain-language summary, full JATS XML, signed peer reviews with their own DOIs, and a complete revision timeline. Immediately open access under CC BY 4.0.
§ 03 · Founded by
Built by researchers,
Built by researchers,
for researchers
The Meridian was founded by Laura-Maria Peltonen (University of Eastern Finland) and Maxim Topaz (Columbia University), health informaticians whose research on reference fabrication in the biomedical literature (The Lancet, 2026) revealed the scale of integrity failures in academic publishing.
The Meridian is the journal their research demanded.