How to Write a Peer Review

Updated: 17 Jun 2023

Do you aspire to be a peer preview expert? Then, this article is worth reading. This guide will offer so much informative content on the peer review process. You will learn the meaning of peer review, the types of peer reviews, and how to write a peer review report or feedback.

In the peer review process, three parties are involved; the journal editor, the reviewer, and the author. A researcher submits an article to a journal for peer review and later publishing. A journal editor follows the guidelines before publishing the content and seeks a reviewer(s).

The reviewer evaluates the article and offers recommendation that helps in decision-making. If your research meets the reviewing criteria, it’s accepted for publication with minor or major revisions. If it fails, the article is rejected, and you should search for another journal.

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What is the Meaning of a Peer Review?

Peer review is an academic process of evaluating the author's work. Experts in the field help criticize someone’s research before it’s published or even presented to the panel for evaluation. For instance, college students write research proposals, term papers, lab reports, a thesis, etc.

To be sure you have followed the standard writing guidelines, and that your content is quality, it's best to give someone to review your paper. You should find an expert in the field, like a lecturer for publication or even your colleagues if it’s a class assignment.

Why is peer review important? Peer review is considered the stamp for producing quality research. This process helps filter the content that meets all the features of quality scientific research. The ideal people for reviewing academic papers should be professionals in the field.

So, if you need help writing a review for any of the above papers and especially lab reports, place an order for our services. You can also learn the best tips on how to write a lab report.

What is it Checked in the Peer Review?

During the evaluation process, the experts check for the following in your paper:

A well an informative, comprehensive paper
Valid and well-argued ideas
The contribution of your article to the field of study

Steps in Writing a Peer Review

The peer review processes may vary from journal to journal. However, the following are the most common steps you are likely to follow:

The author finds an appropriate journal for their research
Researcher submits their paper for review
The journal takes action

- Accept your research and goes to the expert review stage
- Rejects the paper and requests the author to resubmit after revisions
- Dismisses your research entirely
- After acceptance, the articles go through a series of peer reviews
- Make revisions to the critiques made
- If the revisions are correct, your paper will be published

Which are the Various Types of Peer Review?

Peer review is largely classified into two main groups; open and closed. The open review is where the author and reviewer know each other, while in the closed system, all parties remain anonymous. Therefore, the closed review process has various types depending on the number of people involved.

1. Single Blind Review

This type is also called a single anonymized review. The reviewers know the author, while the reviewers remain anonymous to the author. This type of review is very common and usually prevents the author from responding directly to the reviewers.

However, this method tends to be disadvantageous to the author because the reviewers may judge the research based on the research history, gender, academic background, and more. Therefore, if choosing this kind of revision, ensure you get the most professional experts for an unbiased report.

2. Transparent Review

The transparency almost sounds the same as the single-blind because the reviewer knows the researcher's identity while the author doesn’t know the reviewer. However, the authors can know their reviewers if they agree to share their identities. Again, before evaluating your research, the reviewers should agree to disclose their identity.

3. Double Blind Review

In this type, the reviewer and author don’t know each other. The journal editor doesn’t share credentials with the parties involved. The editors remove all the information that will reveal the parties' identity, such as names, affiliations, etc.

4. Collaborative Peer Review

This model allows the researcher and reviewer to discuss via email or the agreed review method. So, as the name suggests, they work together in this process. So both parties can communicate and exchange notes in real time. So, the author can learn a lot from the review and make the necessary corrections.

5. Triple Blind Review

This method doesn’t reveal the identity of any party, the journal, the reviewer, or the author, especially during the first stage. This model aims to reduce bias in the reviewing process and focus on quality. Though there are still chances that the editor and reviewer can recognize the author, it looks like the most appropriate process. However, it’s rarely practiced.

6. Transferrable Peer Review / Cascading

This system occurs when you submit your work for review and then it’s rejected. So, the academic community helps researchers whose work is rejected by recommending them to other journals. However, it’s not guaranteed that your work will eventually be published, so it’s best to be prepared for any outcome.

7. Post-Publication Peer Review

This process works on the already published papers. In today’s research, there is so much pressure to publish articles, and sometimes it gets overwhelming for journals. So, to ensure that all the quality criteria are met, the post-publication peer review (PPPR) should be followed. The reviews are usually sent via emails, letters, and journal discussions.

The above are the various types of peer reviews; if you need to seek clarifications from us on the peer review process, place an order for our academic writing services.

What’s the Format of a Peer Review Report?

The agreed format for peer review is as follows:

1. Summary

After scrutinizing the paper, write a few paragraphs summarizing the research question. What are the research goals of this paper, which approach doesn’t apply, and what are the conclusions? This message will inform the author if their article is informative. Also, it proves to the editor that you read and understood the research paper as a reviewer.

Again, consider including all the positive aspects in the article. This point is a nice way to motivate the author rather than start with the negatives.

The other part gives an overall view of the research. For issuance, how is the chosen research topic? Do you think the data supports the paper’s argument? Does the content add value to the specific research field? Is it worth publishing the article? So, address those issues that touch on the context of research.

2. Decision

It falls under the summary as the last paragraph. So, it’s a statement regarding the whole article, either as a concluding sentence or separate from the summary. Highlight which decision should be taken on this paper, like does it have revisions or should it be accepted or declined.

3. Major Concerns

It deals with the issues raised by the journal regarding the acceptance guidelines, that is, the quality of work they want for their publication. So as a reviewer, check out these issues keenly as they affect your decision to accept the work upon revising or rejecting it.

Some examples of the major issues to consider are; how the writer presents arguments; they should be consistent. Presence of computational data in the research to justify the claims.

4. Minor Concerns

These issues won’t affect the article's logic but will make it more meaningful. So the examples are:

Grammatical errors
Checking on the readability
Fluffy paragraphs
Incorrect references or missing ones
Using the wrong phrases in the section
Check on factual and numerical errors

Peer Review Feedback Examples

While you write comments to the author on what to correct or revise, be professional and focus on constructive criticism. Even if you reject the work, let the writer understand why the manuscript can’t be published and how to improve it.

Other tips to consider as examples of peer review feedback include:

While writing a review, ensure you follow the above-given structure or what the journal recommends. The report should highlight the research, its major points and conclusion, and where the author needs to improve either as major or minor concerns.
In your comment, always be fair and provide a comment on your claims. For instance, why do you think the research methods aren’t appropriate, and what is your suggestion?
Write feedback you would also like to receive without bias or judging the researcher. Comments that will help the author to improve even if it’s a major issue, not breaking them down.

If, after reading the discussion, you find something amiss, then you can comment like this:

"done job on this section. You choose methods that will fit your sample size. However, it’s unclear about your participants; you should add some features that define the sample size, like height, age, and gender, for clarity."

Under conclusion

"You have a straightforward conclusion highlighting what’s in the research. However, it’s too wordy and lacks your view or opinion about the research. For instance, since the experiment has many flaws, you may suggest more future research ideas to improve your methodology."

These are just a few examples of peer review feedback you can write. If it gets a bit tricky for you, you can view our professional peer review examples that we have written on our site. Also, you can still place an order for our education assignment writing services.

Which are the Advantages and Weaknesses of Peer Review?

The peer review system has been there for years. It sets the bar on how research academia should be carried out to remain relevant and useful to society. Again, the process ensures that all the set standards in a certain field are followed.

Peer reviews ensure the quality of content before publication – it checks for plagiarism, duplication of content, and relevance.
Assists authors in receiving professional feedback – experts' comments help the researcher polish their writing skills and creativity. So, it's a moment to learn and develop ideas for further research.
It helps researchers spot flaws in their argument – peer review is the first line of defense in ensuring the research answers all the questions, the arguments aren’t vague, and informs the readers.

Learn more benefits of the peer review process.

Weakness of Peer Review

Sometimes the reviewers may give superficial or even unhelpful commentaries to the authors, thus adding no value to the research
Writers may also fail to apply what they have learned in other work or make the necessary revisions leading to a tedious process.
Reviewers may also be mean with their comments, even judging the authors based on gender or race
The whole peer review process is very tasking and time-consuming. It’s also expensive for researchers without a guarantee of publication.
Sometimes the process may not be transparent, and decision-making is upon the editors. Editors may even reject your work before issuing it for review.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which Documents are Peer Reviewed?

All academic documents usually go through the peer review system. However, the most peer-reviewed documents are:

Journals
Research articles
Literature reviews

2. Makes a Good Peer Review Process?

A genuine and professional peer review process should have the following features:

Clear – the comments given by the reviewer should be easy to understand for them to make revisions.
Consistent – the evaluation comments should be the same even in the main review
Constructive - feedback should be helpful to the author

3. What Should A Peer Review Avoid?

As a reviewer, avoid the following:

Making personal references to the author or using an emotional style
Too much critiquing of every style or the author’s taste
Influencing the author to cite your work, yet there it has something contradictory
Taking too much time until you inconvenience the writer
Discussing the author’s work with other people before it gets published
Making unreasonable demands on what the author should revise

To Wind Up

Peer review should be a transparent and constructive process. It should motivate the researchers and create room for more studies. The journal should also ensure they choose professional reviewers who aim to guide the author and not show off their expertise. The evaluation process should also have some uniformity for all the journals so that all writers have equal opportunities.

So, you have now learned how to write a peer-review report. If you are given an assignment on the same, ensure you follow all the guidelines. If you are too busy to handle the work, don’t worry, our writers are available. Place an order for our writing services and have the best experience.

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How to Write a Peer Review - Homeworkmarket

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