Perspectives

This article makes the case for applying systems thinking to submission and peer review systems (SPRSs) in journals publishing. It argues that the evolving landscape of publishing necessitates a new way of thinking about these fundamental systems. The piece encourages publishers to reconsider their approach to SPRSs, suggesting that systems thinking could revolutionize this critical part of the publishing workflow.

Scholarly publishers – especially those in the STM fields – are increasingly enriching their content with an array of metadata with the aim of ensuring that content is distributed broadly, adaptable for multiple purposes, and rendered interoperable with other relevant content. The options available continue to grow, and the value added to content grows as well. Semantic enrichment is an additional class of metadata that further improves the utility, discovery, and interoperability of content.