Understanding Reviews

Peer review is a crucial part of scholarly communication. During this process, authors ideally receive helpful comments on the significance and novelty of their work as well as…

Although academic journal publishing has been around since the 17th century, the concept of the peer review system is relatively new as traditional peer review was only established…

An academic rebuttal letter can be a great chance to convince referees and editors that your paper is good and should be published in that journal. Often, it is your last…

Does reviewing a paper without seeing its results actually help referees make a fairer decision? The open access journal BMC Psychology, published by BioMed Central, certainly…

You may have probably heard about fake papers that made it into peer-reviewed publications over the past few years, but now even fake peer reviews are being generated. A group of…

So the reviewers’ comments have come in and they aren’t good. Not terrible, but negative enough that the editor has requested a response before making a decision on publication.…

In experimental science double-blind testing is the standard procedure. To avoid bias it is important that neither the subject nor the evaluator knows which pills are the potential…

A fact that is not very widely known or universally accepted by authors is that manuscripts may be rejected without the due and expected peer review process. While manuscripts have…

Serving Two Masters Which elements should be considered as a metric for performance as a good peer reviewer? If we look at the process from the perspective of the manuscript, a…

Increased Scrutiny of a Critical Process: A Google search for “peer review best practices” will produce over 5,600 results, with numerous examples of detailed manuals and…

Should a Peer Reviewer Choose Honor above Money? The peer review process has always been considered to be a proud tradition in the academic community. Experienced and highly…

Opportunities for Correction Authors will argue that articles and manuscripts are always open for correction until the last possible moment. Colleagues are usually willing to…