The peer-review system is one of the cornerstones of quality, integrity and reproducibility in research, and its existence has enabled the scholarly publishing system to function for hundreds of years. Yet, it is beset by challenges ranging from perceived bias to lack of transparency, and the system is groaning beneath the weight of the vastly increasing quantity of research being published every year. This article lays out some of the challenges, reports on a survey of Nature Publishing Group and Palgrave Macmillan authors, and examines a number of pilots.