In the academic publishing world, peer review is like the “inspected by” sticker you find in your clothes. It provides assurance that someone who knows what they’re doing has double-checked it. This means a group of scientists completes a study and writes it up in the form of an article. They submit it to a journal for publication. The journal’s editors send the article to several other scientists who work in the same field to get feedback on the article and tell the editor whether they think the study is of high enough quality to be published. Given that process, imagine the potential chaos when the process changes. The Scholarly Kitchen brought this topic to our attention in their article, “Guest Post — Transitioning to a New Peer Review System: From Scary to Successful.”
Changing peer review systems can be necessary, but it is still a challenge. Considering the peer review process is the foundation of many journals, a great deal of thought and work goes into ensuring a good experience for authors, reviewers, and editors.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
