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Researcher Skills Toolkit

Peer Review

Peer review is the cornerstone of scholarly publishing. The peer-review process assesses the validity, quality, and originality of publications, with the goals of maintaining the integrity of science, producing content of a high academic standard, and filtering out invalid or poor-quality research.  

Traditionally, peer review occurs prior to publication, and is performed by credible and independent researchers familiar with the discipline focus of the manuscript. After peer review, a manuscript may be accepted for publication following revisions suggested by reviewers, accepted for publication without revision, or rejected for publication. Sometimes a manuscript may be rejected for one journal but transferred to another at the same publisher.

Four principles underscore a robust peer-review process: 

  1. Fairness – Peer review should provide a fair, clear, constructive, objective, and accurate assessment 
  2. Competence – Peer review should be performed by academics who are sufficiently competent in the field to make an informed assessment  
  3. Transparency - Authors and reviewers should be transparent about any perceived or actual conflicts of interests 
  4. Confidentiality – Reviewers should maintain confidentiality about the content of the work, and not use information obtained by peer review for personal advantage.

(Hooper, M., et.al (2018). Journal Peer Review)

 

Types of Peer Review

There are five main types of peer review. Each journal, book publisher or conference organiser will determine which review type is applied to manuscripts submitted for publication. Most publishers will provide details about the peer-review process at the journal, conference, or publisher site.

Reviewers know the names of the authors, but authors do not know who reviewed their manuscript. This is the most common type of peer review for scholarly journals in the sciences.

Reviewers do not know the names of the authors, and authors do not know who reviewed their manuscript. This is the most common type of peer review for scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities.

Authors know who the reviewers are, and reviewers know who the authors are. Additionally, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, the reviewer reports are published alongside the article together with the author responses to the reviewer. Open peer review can be used after single- or double-blind peer review, with permission from the authors and reviewers.

Reviewers know the names of the authors, but authors do not know who reviewed their manuscript unless the reviewer chooses to sign their report. Additionally, if the manuscript is accepted, the anonymous reviewer reports are published alongside the article together with the author responses to the reviewer.

Manuscripts continue to be reviewed post-publication. Reviews may be included on a comments page or discussion area alongside the manuscript. Post-publication peer review does not exclude other forms of peer review and is usually in addition to, rather than instead of, pre-publication review.

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