Would you sponsor an evaluation?
The Unjournal commissions public expert evaluations and ratings of research that can inform important decisions. We're considering a way for individuals and organizations to sponsor specific evaluations. Before deciding whether to pilot it, we'd like to hear from potential sponsors, evaluators, authors, and research users.
Status: an idea we're asking about, not a plan. We haven't decided to do any of this, and nothing on this page is a commitment. We want to know whether people would take part and find it useful before deciding whether to try it at all. We are not collecting money through this page. Last updated 6 October 2026.
The idea
Roughly, it could work like this:
- We prioritize research as we do now. We publish the papers and themes we plan to evaluate, with our reasoning. The research candidates dashboard and papers under consideration show this process in its early form.
- Sponsors add to an evaluator compensation pool for a particular paper or a broader theme (for example, cultivated meat costs or wellbeing measurement). Part of each pool would cover the evaluation manager and our running costs.
- Anyone can signal interest without paying, by rating or commenting on candidates. The number of distinct sponsors and supporters is itself a useful signal of what people value.
- We recruit evaluators as soon as a paper is chosen, telling them the minimum payment and the current pool. A larger pool should help us get more expert, faster, and more thorough evaluations.
Why consider this? It would let people who rely on research put resources behind the evaluations they care about. It would tell us more about what's valued, and make The Unjournal less dependent on a few large grants.
Safeguards we're considering
If we did try this, sponsors should be able to make evaluations happen sooner and better, not change what evaluators conclude. Options we're thinking about include:
- Each pool is fixed before evaluators are assigned, with no top-ups once an evaluation is underway.
- Evaluator pay never depends on what the evaluation says. Any quality bonus would follow criteria announced in advance.
- Evaluators would not know who the sponsors are while they work.
- Sponsors would have no say in judging evaluations, and evaluators would not compete for sponsor money, so there's no reward for writing what a likely sponsor would want to read.
- Authors, and organizations with a direct stake in a paper's conclusions, could not sponsor that paper. They might be allowed to contribute to broader theme pools, with disclosure.
- Sponsors would be listed publicly alongside the evaluation.
We don't currently charge authors or readers. See our open-access policy.
A concern we've heard: would sponsored evaluations look bought?
Some people we've discussed this with worry that readers would trust any evaluation less if an outside sponsor had paid for it, however good the safeguards. Readers discount industry-funded studies in a similar way. Credibility is the main thing we offer, so we take this seriously.
One response would be to accept sponsorship only for research areas or questions, never for the evaluation of a particular paper. A sponsor might fund evaluations of "evidence on cultivated-meat costs," and we would choose the papers and evaluators. That keeps sponsors away from any single verdict, but it gives them less say over which papers get evaluated. Another option is for people to give after an evaluation is published, to show it was useful, with the money going to that research area rather than to the evaluator. We'd like your view on these tradeoffs.
How this differs from paid open review platforms
Platforms such as ResearchHub already pay people to review research. The comparison below may help clarify what we're asking about.
| ResearchHub | The Unjournal now | Under this idea | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What gets reviewed | Preprints and research proposals that someone asks to have reviewed: an author, a would-be reviewer, or a user posting a bounty. The ResearchHub Foundation pays for its program reviews. | Research our team prioritizes for its potential to inform important decisions. | The same. Sponsors would add funds only for research we've already prioritized, possibly only by area or question. |
| Who reviews | An open call: anyone can submit a review, and editors pay the best two or three. | Experts we commission, chosen by an evaluation manager, with conflict-of-interest checks. | The same. |
| Payment | $150 per approved review, paid in ResearchCoin (pegged to dollars). | A base fee plus incentives, in dollars. | A base fee plus a sponsor-funded pool, fixed before the work starts. |
| What's published | A public review, usually within about two weeks. | A structured evaluation with quantitative ratings and uncertainty, an evaluation manager's summary, an author response, and a DOI. | The same. |
| Authors' money | Authors can request reviews of their own work. | Authors pay nothing. | Authors could not sponsor evaluations of their own work. |
Summarized from ResearchHub's public pages in October 2026, and details may have changed. ResearchHub reviews far more papers than we do, and faster. The two approaches answer different needs.
Further ideas: rewarding people who spot valuable research early
We're also curious whether people would want ways for those who spot valuable research early to get some credit, and sometimes a modest prize. This draws on discussions of forecasting prizes and "impact certificates." For example:
- Matching funds: a funder matches sponsorships, weighting the number of distinct sponsors more than the amounts.
- Pledges collected only if a target is reached: you pledge to a paper or theme, and we only collect if the pool is large enough for the evaluation to go ahead.
- Suggestion and forecasting prizes: a small funder-provided prize pool for people who suggest papers, or forecast how they will be rated or used. Prizes would be paid for accuracy under rules set in advance, with free entry and no trading.
- Early-sponsor credit: if other sponsors or a later funder back the same paper, its early sponsors could direct extra matching funds to other evaluations.
These are possibilities we're asking about, not plans. We don't know whether any of them would be worth the added complexity compared with simple sponsorship and matching, or whether people would use them. Questions we'd have to work through include the tax and legal status of anything that returns money to donors, keeping authors and others with a stake in a paper from earning on it, and keeping forecasts away from evaluators while they work.
Questions we'd like your view on
- Would you, or your organization, sponsor an evaluation? Roughly how much, and for which papers or topics?
- Would you trust an evaluation less if an outside sponsor had funded it? Would it matter whether they funded that paper's evaluation or only a broader research area?
- If you'd sponsor, would funding a research area or question, rather than a specific paper, be enough for you?
- Which conflict-of-interest risks concern you most, and which safeguards would you trust?
- As an evaluator, would a visible pool make you more likely to take on an evaluation? Would anything about it bother you?
- Would you take part in suggestion or forecasting prizes, or put up matching funds?
- Have you seen similar schemes work or fail?
Tell us what you think
Everything is optional. Responses go to The Unjournal team and are not shown on this site. We'll only quote you, anonymously, if you tick the box below. Netlify, which hosts this site, stores submissions; see our feedback and privacy guide.
Related
- How the prioritization project works
- Cruxes and pivotal questions: uncertainties where better evidence could change decisions
- Commission a set of evaluations (for organizations wanting a dedicated series on a topic or on research they fund or rely on; available now)
- Donate to The Unjournal (general support, available now)