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Information literacy - American studies: The peer review process

What is peer review?

Researchers record the results of their work in academic articles. The aim of these articles is to inform other researchers about research findings and to lay claim to the findings as new and original insights. Such claims are not usually acknowledged by other researchers until the article has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

What is peer review? Peer review is a form of quality assessment. In this context, the word ‘peer’ (meaning an equal) refers to a fellow researcher. A peer review is therefore an assessment by a fellow specialist in the relevant field. Peer reviewers assess whether an article meets certain requirements, such as originality, accessibility and solid substantiation of the results. All academic journals work with a system like this in order to assure the quality of the articles they publish.

If an article is peer-reviewed, you can assume that the information is reliable and of the required standard. In many bibliographic databases you can search specifically for peer-reviewed articles.

Peer review in 3 minutes

How does peer review work in practice?

Step 1

A researcher (or research group) submits an article to the editor of an academic journal that is most relevant to the subject of the article. The editor gives the article a cursory reading and determines whether the article is of the required quality, contains new insights and is well written.

Step 2

If the editor decides to proceed with the article, two or more peer reviewers must be sought. The reviewers may be the authors of articles previously published in the journal, or other researchers who have an established reputation in a particular research field. The selected reviewers receive a letter or an e-mail asking them whether they are willing to assess an article before a certain date.

They are only given the title and author(s) of the article, and in some cases an abstract. The editor will always look for reviewers who are fellow researchers and experts in the subject of the article, but also aims for diversity. In general, reviewers will accept a review request because it strenghtens their own reputation in the relevant research field.

Step 3

The editor will eventually receive two or more reviews, which are then sent anonymously to the author(s) of the article. On the basis of the reviews, the editor decides whether to reject the article, ask the author(s) to make major or minor revisions, or to accept it without further action. In most cases, authors are required to rewrite part of the article.

Step 4

The revised version is resubmitted by the author(s), along with a response to the reviewers’ comments. The editor will then reassess the comments, the response of the author(s) and the revised article. The article may still be accepted, but more often than not it is sent back to the reviewers for further comments. This means that an article may be revised several times before it is ultimately accepted or rejected.
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