By scrolling to the end of the Nature Nanotechnology papers published online since the middle of February 2019, our readers will notice that we now thank some reviewers by name. Nature took this initiative about three years ago, and a number of other Nature journals, including Nature Nanotechnology, are now following its example.

To be clear, we are still committed to protecting the identity of reviewers if they do not wish to be named. Only once we have taken the decision to publish a paper do we contact reviewers and ask whether they agree to be acknowledged publicly. Should they not agree or simply not respond, we would acknowledge them anonymously. At Nature, about 80% of papers published since the trial began have at least one reviewer named. More specifically, about 55% of reviewers opted in, 25% of them opted out and 20% did not respond.

The trial is one of several initiatives launched by the Nature journals to improve transparency in the assessment and reporting of scientific advances, like the publication of the reviewer reports at Nature Communications or the use of reporting summaries in specific fields of research.

Perhaps more importantly, it is a simple way to recognize publicly the expert contribution that is vital in the editorial decisions we make. The comments of reviewers can be invaluable in corroborating the validity of a study and helping the authors of a paper to strengthen their results. The purpose of peer review is to improve science, and for doing that, our reviewers deserve our thanks.