Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A publisher's "Peer Review Process" page stating: identity transparency = double anonymized; reviewer interacts with = editor only; review information published = none; post-publication commenting = not enabled — addressing all four Z39.106 dimensions with the standard's own terms rather than a single unqualified label.
- Is an instance
A manuscript-submission system exporting a journal's review-model metadata as "single anonymized" rather than "single-blind," so the description travels with the article record using Z39.106's controlled vocabulary instead of an informal, publisher-specific term.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A journal "About" page stating only "We use blind peer review" is not a Z39.106-conformant description — it uses the pre-standard term "blind" and addresses only identity transparency, without stating a position on reviewer interaction, published review information, or post-publication commenting.
Editorial commentary
ANSI/NISO Z39.106-2023, Standard Terminology for Peer Review, is a National Information Standards Organization (NISO) standard, developed jointly with the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), that gives journals and publishers a common, structured vocabulary for describing how a manuscript’s peer review was actually conducted. It was published July 5, 2023 (DOI: 10.3789/ansi.niso.z39.106-2023; ISBN 978-1-950980-27-7).
Why it exists
Before the standard, journals described their review process with informal, inconsistent labels — "blind," "double-blind," "open," "peer reviewed" — that meant different things at different publishers and left out most of the practical detail a reader, author, or funder actually needs: who saw whose identity, what gets published alongside the article, and whether commenting continues after publication. An STM Association working group convened in 2019 to build a shared taxonomy addressing that ambiguity; the work was brought to NISO for formal standardization in 2021 and, after a public comment period and publisher piloting, became ANSI/NISO Z39.106-2023.
The standard organizes peer-review description around four dimensions rather than a single label:
- Identity transparency — e.g. single anonymized, double anonymized, all identities visible
- Reviewer interacts with — e.g. editor only, author and editor
- Review information published — e.g. none, reviewer identities, review reports, decision letters
- Post-publication commenting — enabled or not
The standard’s terminology also replaces "blind"/"double-blind" with "single anonymized"/"double anonymized" — part of a broader move in scholarly publishing away from disability-referencing language for identity concealment, discussed further on CASRAI’s own comparison of peer review models linked below.
Related CASRAI content
CASRAI’s Single-blind vs double-blind vs open peer review comparison walks through the practical trade-offs between these models using this same terminology. See also the Dictionary’s single-anonymized peer review and double-anonymized peer review entries for two of the standard’s identity-transparency values, and reviewer role typology for a related but distinct NISO-adjacent vocabulary that classifies types of review activity (manuscript, grant, data, code) for crediting purposes, rather than describing the review model itself.
References
- NISO, ANSI/NISO Z39.106-2023, Standard Terminology for Peer Review
- NISO/STM, Peer Review Terminology (joint resource site)
- STM Association, Peer Review Terminology
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="ANSI/NISO Z39.106-2023 (Peer Review Terminology Standard)"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ansi-niso-z39-106-2023-peer-review-terminology" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ansi-niso-z39-106-2023-peer-review-terminology",
"name": "ANSI/NISO Z39.106-2023 (Peer Review Terminology Standard)",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ansi-niso-z39-106-2023-peer-review-terminology",
"description": "The ANSI/NISO standard (Z39.106-2023, Standard Terminology for Peer Review, published July 5, 2023; DOI 10.3789/ansi.niso.z39.106-2023; ISBN 978-1-950980-27-7) that gives journals and publishers a common, structured vocabulary for describing how a manuscript's peer review was actually conducted. Developed from a taxonomy first built by an STM Association working group (convened 2019, brought to NISO in 2021) and refined through public comment and publisher piloting, it organizes description around four dimensions: (1) identity transparency — e.g. single anonymized, double anonymized, all identities visible; (2) who the reviewer interacts with — e.g. editor only, author and editor; (3) what review information is published alongside the article — e.g. none, reviewer identities, review reports, decision letters; and (4) whether post-publication commenting is enabled. A journal's peer-review policy is described using Z39.106 terminology when it states a position on all four dimensions with the standard's controlled terms, rather than a single unqualified label like \"blind\" or \"peer reviewed.\"",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/credit-extensions#set",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ansi-niso-z39-106-2023-peer-review-terminology",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.niso.org/publications/z39106-2023-peerreview"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
},
"dateModified": "2026-07-16T07:40:07",
"inLanguage": "en"
}
