Inherently Responsive is the blog of the journal Heredity, published by NPG. As explained at the post Your chance to respond, the journal is seeking to improve its peer-review process using the opportunities provided by the web. One proposed model is to publish papers accompanied by referees’ comments, another is to publish correspondence columns in the journal after publication of the paper, to air legitimate differences of scientific opinion.

Inherently Responsive combines aspects of these two approaches. It publishes rapid feedback on papers that have appeared in Heredity: technical comments, relevant work published elsewhere and so on. Here is one example, about inheritance of litter size in Arctic foxes. It also plans to publish comments provided for public consumption by the peer-reviewers, so readers can see why the paper is controversial or why publication was recommended.

Inherently Responsive also features discussion on the editorial direction of the journal. In large part the content of Heredity is determined by what is submitted, but some of it is are commissioned. The blog seeks to obtain journal readers’ views on whether important areas are being negelected.