ALMA Publishes Study Comparing Distributed Peer Review with Panel Review

ALMA has conducted a detailed analysis of proposal review outcomes under the distributed peer review (DPR) process, covering the five cycles since its introduction (Cycles 8–12), and comparing them with the panel-based review system used in Cycles 0–7. Based on more than 20,000 proposals and over 160,000 individual reviews, the study examines whether proposal rankings, scientific diversity, reviewer agreement, and review quality changed after the transition, finding that the statistical patterns of proposal evaluation remain largely unchanged.
 
A summary of the main findings is available here, and the full paper (Carpenter & Corvillón 2026, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) is available here.