{"id":3674,"date":"2020-09-25T06:56:19","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T06:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-can-authors-and-reviewers-rebuild-trust-in-peer-review-by-making-ethical-informed-choices\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:29:43","slug":"how-can-authors-and-reviewers-rebuild-trust-in-peer-review-by-making-ethical-informed-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-can-authors-and-reviewers-rebuild-trust-in-peer-review-by-making-ethical-informed-choices","title":{"rendered":"How can authors and reviewers rebuild trust in peer review? By making ethical, informed choices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peer review is considered the stamp of credibility for published science. The quality of a research study is evaluated primarily by the fact that it was published in a peer reviewed journal. However, in recent times, due to an increase in cases of scientific misconduct and irreproducible science, the faith of the scholarly community in the mechanism of peer review seems to have been shaken. The primary aim of this article is to give you an insight into the peer review process, what your expectations of it, as an author, might be and what your contribution should be, thereby elevating your sense of stakeholdership and helping rebuild your trust in the system.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As an author, you have a certain degree of control over how well your research will be peer reviewed. Even with this limited control, if you make the right choices, maintain integrity, and have your goals set, you can make a difference to the quality of peer review that is performed on your manuscript. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Choosing the right journal is the first step towards trust<\/b> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Making an informed choice when submitting your paper to a journal is the first step you need to take as an author. It is important to avoid a particular journal if certain conditions are not met. I have outlined here some simple indicators of when a publisher might be predatory.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You are surfing the net looking for potential publications for your article. You find one that offers very speedy peer review, a very high acceptance rate and above all speedy publication. Is this too good to be true? Quite possibly it is. I have already seen many potential red flags in those supposed positives and I have not even seen where this journal is indexed or the publication charges yet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You decide to press on and really look around this site. That probably starts with \u201cAuthor Guidelines.\u201d You are an author. That heading speaks to you. \u201cPeer Reviewer Guidelines\u201d does not \u2013 literally somebody else\u2019s job description. So you may well entrust your precious article to people about whose general job description you have little idea and whose role on the particular journal you simply do not know. How can you trust these people? Yet, a quality journal will outline in specific terms what a peer reviewer must do, will likely have pro-formas available to the reviewer to record scoring and comments and will make that information available to you after review. Quality journals will make all of this process information available on their websites though it might take some looking for, especially under that unfamiliar \u201cPeer Reviewer Guidelines\u201d section heading. If these details are not available on-site, you should be on alert mode and evaluate the journal carefully before deciding to submit.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The following might be your most basic checklist:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n