Steps taken in a peer review process

For any dissertation to be successful it is essential that it goes through a thorough peer review process. The tradition of peer review is very old and has been around in academic circles for quite a few centuries. It is the dream of all researchers to get their material published in a respected journal. However, this path can be painstaking, time consuming and arduous. The more respected the journal, the higher their standards and the more thoroughly they examine the work that has been submitted. If the material has already been looked over by respected scholars then the task of submission becomes a lot easier. If there are any errors in the journal then they get eliminated at this stage itself before they are sent to the journal for publishing.

It is common for many researchers and scientists to take the help of a professional reviewing firm to help them out in this task. This saves them the trouble of trying to find somebody on their own to look through their work. In many of these cases the report goes through what is referred to as a single blind review. The reviewer knows the identity of the author, but not vice versa. This makes the reviewer safe from the retributions of authors for whom they have written negative remarks. Then there is the double blind review. This is where neither the reviewer nor the author, know each other’s identity. This saves the author from any biases that the reviewer might have towards him. The reviewer would simply look at the written material and focus on its quality and not on who wrote it. In an open review, both the author and the reviewer know each other, making it easy for one side to ask for feedback and the other side to give it.

The reviewer reads through the document and passes his judgement on the validity of the study, the style in which it has been written, identify any incorrect references that might have been given by the author, evaluate the significance of the findings and pass an overall judgement on the standard of the work. They also give suggestions for ways in which the project can be improved. The author can choose to take the advice of the reviewer or not. Many editors of respected journals also consider the opinion of the reviewer before clearing the content for submission.

 

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