Peer review

Peer review is the process by which articles (or book chapters, book  manuscripts, book or journal proposals, funding applications, etc) are scrutinised by experts in the field who comment on their strengths and weaknesses, recommend whether they should be published (or funded etc) and/or what changes might be required.

Usually peer review is (single) blind (the authors/proposers are not told who reviewed their work) or double blind (neither authors/proposer nor reviewers know the identify of the other).

Journal editors make decisions on accepted or rejecting article based on referee reports. Often referees recommend changes that are needed before an article can be published. Often revised/resubmitted manuscripts have to be tracked to high light changes, and a detailed response is expected showing how referee comments have ben addressed. Sometimes authors are allowed to defend their original work against referee critique, but often they are expected to show that they have accommodated most if not all recommendations.

“The response to reviewers is of some use, but does not seem to have addressed most of the points raised previously. ... It is disappointing that some of the issues raised in reviewing the original submission appear to have been ignored by the authors in preparing their review.”

(Peer review report on revised article submitted for publication)

Referees will comment on a wide variety of features of submissions.

Index of topics