Learning from Other Peer Reviewers

Greetings again. I hope your week has started well.

As you may recall, the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers were our latest Resource of the Week. These guidelines list items that peer reviewers should do before, during, and after the peer review process.

The after-reviewing list says, among other things, that peer reviewers should “read the reviews from the other reviewers, if these are provided by the journal, to improve their own understanding of the topic or the decision reached.”

I recently had a fine experience in this regard. Let me tell you about it:

Early this month I reviewed a manuscript for a journal. Last week I received a copy of the journal’s decision letter, along with the comments that all 4 peer reviewers had written for use by the authors.

Reading the other 3 reviewers’ comments was interesting and educational. All 4 of us seemed to reach similar conclusions. However, each of us made some different points.

For example, one reviewer discussed study design most thoroughly. Another most thoroughly related the research being evaluated to the published literature. I think I included more suggestions than the others for clarifying wording.

I learned from the other peer reviewers’ comments. And I think the feedback from reviewers with different strengths will help the authors.

If you’re a peer reviewer, I encourage you to read the other reviews if you can. And if you’re a journal editor, I hope you share comments among reviewers or will consider doing so.

Until the next post—

Barbara