Have you completed the write up of your research and submitted it to a journal? If this is the case, you must be ready for the next phase. The next phase is the peer-review process. In this process, the journal sends your paper or dissertation to experts in your field. This step holds immense importance in making your research a success. Thus, you must be ready for this. But the problem is that many researchers do not know much about the peer review process. Keeping this problem in view, today’s discussion is centric to this process. In this article, you will find a description of all the steps involved in reviewing your paper. Let’s start describing the topic with the following very basic question.
What Is The Peer Review Process?
Peer review is the process using which the journals check the quality of the research content. The journal sends the paper to experts from the researcher’s field. Upon receiving the papers, the experts scrutinise and judge the research’s validity, significance and originality. In simple words, peer review is an independent assessment of your research work by experts in your field.
What Are The Steps Of The Peer Review Process?
After defining the peer review, let’s know about the steps of this process. The steps of this process vary from journal to journal. A brief description of the primary steps is as follows:
- After submission of the paper, the reviewer gives the first read to the manuscript. During this first read, the reviewer gets the first impression of the paper. He tries to know whether the author has addressed all the research questions or not.
- After the first read, he spots the major flaws in the research paper. The major flaws can be a conclusion that contradicts the study results.
- The reviewer either rejects the paper at this early stage or accepts it for a second read.
- Once you have completed the first read-through, the second read-through starts. You analyse the paper against content quality and language in the second read.
- The reviewer looks for potential grammatical and punctuational errors in the next step. Alongside, he checks the paper’s originality.
- After the above analysis section by section, you make recommendations to the journal. You provide a report and a recommendation on whether to accept the paper for publication or reject it.
What Makes A Good Peer Review Process?
A good peer review process contains some elements. After you have accepted a review, you need to write that review and send it back to the AE. So, below are the points shared by expert dissertation help services that you should take care of;
- Starting with the introduction of the research is a useful exercise. This tells the author that you have read his paper.
- After the introduction, write your thoughts about the paper. As a reviewer, you need to provide a summary of your reasons.
- The next section includes detailed comments about the manuscript. For a smooth peer review process, you must structure the comments in a proper way.
- As a reviewer, your review must be clear, constructive and consistent. In case you reject the paper, the review should not give any bad impression. Rather, it should be constructive and motivating.
What Process Do Peer-Reviewed Publications Go Through?
Before publishing a paper, it goes through several steps. The primary steps are nine in number, and a brief description of those is as follows;
Submission Of The Paper
The first step is the submission of the paper. The researcher or the author submits his manuscript via an online system. Many journals also accept submissions via emails. It does not matter what procedure you use to submit the paper. The important thing is that you submit your paper and submit it in a relevant journal.
Editorial Office Assessment
In the second step, the editorial office assesses the research. The office checks the formatting and structure of the document against the journal’s guidelines. The editorial office ensures that the paper includes all the required sections and stylisations. Remember, the quality of the research is not measured in this step.
Appraisal by the Editor-In-Chief (EIC)
After the editorial assessment, the EIC checks whether the paper is suitable for the journal or not. He also checks whether the paper is interesting to read or not. If the research lacks any of the things mentioned above, the EIC rejects it and does not approve for review.
EIC assigns an Associate Editor (AE)
Some journals have an associate editor. The associate editor has to look after the review process. If the journal has this kind of policy, the EIC assigns this an associate editor. This makes sure a smooth peer review process.
Invitation To Reviewers
The AE sends an invitation to the top-notch experts in the field to review the paper. First, the response of one reviewer is collected and then further invitations are sent. Usually, the number of reviewers is 2, but this varies.
Review Process Starts
Once the reviewers accept the invitation, the peer review process starts. Many reviewers do the review in the periods. In the first period, they assess the papers for general impression, and this goes on.
Journal Evaluates The Reviews
After completing their assessment, the reviewers send the document back to the AE. If the reviewers differ from each other greatly, the AE hires another reviewer.
Decision Process
After performing all the steps mentioned above, the journal committee decides whether to publish the paper or not. The AE communicates the decision to the author or the researcher after the completion of the peer review process.
Publishing
If the paper is accepted, it is sent to the production team. The production team publishes the paper on the journal’s website. With this step, the peer review process concludes.
Conclusion
The peer review process is challenging for both the author and the reviewer. The fate of any research paper or dissertation depends on this process. Therefore, the above guidelines will help the reviewers conduct an effective peer review.
