Peer review:
- Helps journal editors to decide whether or not to publish an article in their journal
- Checks the validity of the research and the quality of reporting
- The reviewers’ suggestions can significantly improve the quality of your manuscript!!!
Different approaches:
- Double-blind peer review: neither author nor reviewer knows who the other person is
- Closed peer review: reviewers know who the authors are, but authors do not know who the reviewers are
- Open peer review: authors and reviewers are aware of each other’s identity; sometimes the reviewers’ reports are published alongside the article.
Your task:
- Treat the reviewers’ comments with an open mind – they usually give useful suggestions for your data analysis, interpretation and presentation of your results, and discussion of study limitations
- Answer each of the reviewers’ comments in turn
- Be polite and state exactly what you have changed e.g. by page number, to make it easy for the reviewer and editor to see what changes you have made
- If you disagree with a suggestion from a reviewer, explain politely why you think this would not be appropriate for your manuscript.