Study Protocol: Is the resilience of the academic peer-review system breaking down?

In an attempt to move beyond anecdotal evidence, we want to use time-
series metrics to assess the resilience of the peer review system whole – which includes not only any suggested journal deadlines and extensions, but also include individual reviewers’ bandwidth, moral compass, sense of duty, and priorities. Systems dynamics research has revealed that many systems show the same analytical signals when resilience is being lost. For example, if time series data describing the state of a system is detrended and the residuals analysed then systems that are losing resilience tend to show increasing temporal autocorrelation in these residuals. Such patterns have been observed in economic systems (e.g., prior to banks collapsing), natural systems (e.g., the amazon rainforest), social systems (e.g., prior to the Arab Spring) and atmospheric systems (e.g., in relation to global warming). As such, increasing temporal autocorrelation is widely regarded as a universal metric by which resilience can be measured.