Meet our latest Gold Contributor – Section Editor Pedro Silva

Pedro Silva – Associate Professor, Universidade Fernando Pessoa (Porto, Portugal) – is a biochemist whose research focuses on the computational study of enzymatic and organic reaction mechanisms using quantum chemistry and molecular dynamics methods.

He recently also became just the fourth researcher to become a Gold Contributor to PeerJ, putting him in the top 0.1% of contributors since we launched.

Pedro joined the PeerJ Life & Environment Editorial Board in 2015, and has been a Section Editor for “ Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology ” since its creation in February 2018. He also joined the Editorial Boards of PeerJ Physical Chemistry and PeerJ Organic Chemistry when they launched in 2019. Pedro is also a co-editor of a PeerJ Special Issue on “ Organic Chemistry for Health ”, submissions to which are currently in review.

Pedro has handled over 218 papers for the journal, of which, to date, 123 have gone on to be published. The articles he has edited have accrued over 187,000 views and 644 citations. He has also published 6 articles at PeerJ:

New insights into the mechanism of Schiff base synthesis from aromatic amines in the absence of acid catalyst or polar solvents

Refining the reaction mechanism of O2 towards its co-substrate in cofactor-free dioxygenases

Will 1,2-dihydro-1,2-azaborine-based drugs resist metabolism by cytochrome P450 compound I?

Mechanistic pathways of mercury removal from the organomercurial lyase active site

With or without light: comparing the reaction mechanism of dark-operative protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase with the energetic requirements of the light-dependent protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase

Computational development of rubromycin-based lead compounds for HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibition

“I decided to become an PeerJ Academic Editor because I found that most Editors specialized in my areas (Biochemistry and Biophysics) came from the fields of Molecular Biology, Virology, etc., and not many practitioners of “traditional” or computational enzymology were present. I believed I could help fill that niche,” writes Pedro. “Free access to reliable manuscripts is a very effective form of increasing researcher productivity and science quality, even in the absence of capital-intensive facilities. An ideal publishing venue should be a most ethical organization devoted to publishing sound research after a transparent, thorough, and helpful review. It should reward its reviewers and make them feel appreciated, take a firm stand against authors who attempt to “game the system” and have a clear mechanism to support editors when they must mediate disputes between authors and unreasonable reviewers.”

You can read more from Pedro in a previous interview to learn about his research and why he chooses to work with PeerJ.

Everyone at PeerJ feels incredibly lucky to work with Pedro, and we send our sincere thanks for his massive contribution to PeerJ and to open science.

PeerJ Contribution Points

Many of the contributions made by researchers to the peer review process are unrecognized and underappreciated. As a publisher of peer-reviewed journals we are acutely aware of how vital the contributions from the many communities who choose to work with us are: our journal content is written by researchers, reviewed for scientific soundness by thousands of volunteer reviewers, and overseen by our fantastic, volunteer Academic Editors and Section Editors. Without these contributions – and contributors – the whole peer-review process would fall down immediately.

PeerJ awards Contributions Points for key activities in the peer review process and to reward actions that are positive to open science. Contribution Points are recorded on an individual’s PeerJ Profile Page and in Contribution Leaderboards. Top contributors are recognized by awarding Badges both for their accumulated Contribution Points; and awards are made for being the top contributor to specific subject areas/journals, and for specific roles, such as top Editor or Reviewer. You can find out more about PeerJ Contribution Points here.