Peer Review matches grad students, postdocs, residents and faculty with people who get it when clinic runs late, the lab meeting moves, or a chapter eats the whole weekend. Verified academics, shared free time, and dates that actually fit.
Academic life runs on rotations, field seasons, call schedules, observing runs and deadlines. Peer Review is built around that.
We present a matching app for people in research, medicine, law and the rest of academia. Profiles are verified through institution email or ORCID. Each pair sees the hours they are both free before anyone types hello. Conference mode surfaces people attending the same meeting, and you can hide your profile for a few weeks whenever work takes over.
Most dating apps are built around a nine-to-five week. Academic life isn't. Residents work nights on call, field scientists disappear for a season, law students vanish into outlines before finals, and almost everyone moves for the next position every few years. The usual result: a promising match fizzles while two busy people hunt for a free evening, or ends when one of them leaves for a postdoc three states away.
Peer Review starts from the calendar instead of the photo. Members mark when they're actually free, and every profile shows where your weeks overlap1. Members can confirm an institution email or ORCID iD for a verified badge2, so the person across the table knows what a qualifying exam is. Profiles say up front whether someone is staying or moving, and conferences, where a lot of academics actually meet people, get their own mode4. Contact details stay private throughout3.
Below we report what's in the app (Results), how to join (Methods), and our sources (References).
Eight features, each built for a specific problem academics run into on regular apps.
Mark the mornings, lunches and evenings you can actually make. Every profile shows where your weeks overlap, so propose a time with one tap instead of three days of "what works for you?"
Submit your institution email or ORCID iD and we add a badge once it checks out2. Filter to verified profiles only if you want.
Check in to a conference and see who else is going and when you're both free between sessions. Listings are refreshed weekly4.
Hide your profile during quals, boards, the bar, grant season or a defense. Your matches see a short note instead of silence.
Switch modes to find collaborators, mentors, co-working partners, job leads or a conference buddy. Same verified community.
Choose whether you want someone who gets your jargon or someone who makes you explain it. Every field has its own color5.
Profiles say whether someone is rooted here, open to relocating, or leaving for a postdoc. No surprise two-body problems.
Thirty-minute coffee near campus, a walk between classes or shifts, or dinner booked in advance. Everyone lists what they can do.
Setup takes about five minutes. Shorter than an IRB amendment.
Create an account with your phone number and a password. Optionally submit your institution email or ORCID iD for a verified badge2.
Add photos, pick prompts about your work, your life and your schedule, and write a short abstract. Your profile goes live once it's complete3.
Tap the mornings, lunches and evenings you can usually make. Change it any week.
Swipe, match, and propose a time from your shared windows. Coffee is on the calendar the same day.
Everyone in the academic world, at every stage6.
We thank the early readers who reviewed this page and pointed out, correctly, that it had no Introduction and no References. Conference listings come from the official websites of the societies and organizers that run them.
Funding: none. Competing interests: the authors would like you to go on a date.
Peer Review (2026). Dating for people whose calendars belong to a deadline. peerreviewapp.pages.dev
Over thirty prompts across research, life, schedule and networking. A few to choose from:
Create a free account and see who’s nearby, or who’s going to your next meeting.