Peer Review Questions to ask BEFORE reading:



Real World Peer Review Guidelines

Elin A. Björling

A great deal of frustration and emotional strain can be avoided in the peer review process if you clearly communicate your expectations and boundaries to your peer.

Set Guidelines…

Emotions:

What will you do if you become emotionally charged in the peer review process? Writing is emotional, so we need to be prepared for this. Discuss this BEFORE exchanging material. Outline the boundaries of the review and agree to let others know if you are feeling emotionally charged or if the feedback is not helpful. Sometimes, it may be necessary to work with someone else in the review process. Remember, this process is about supporting our peer in their writing progress. Plan ahead for the possibility of changing your peer reviewer if you are not progressing.

Critical Comments:

Remember that we need critical feedback and not just positive comments. In order for people to move forward, they need critical questions and comments. But, don’t confuse critical with negative. Negative comments often involve blanket statements or a closed door whereas critical comments often open a door and suggest possibilities.

An example:

Negative blanket: “This doesn’t make any sense!”

Critical feedback with specific comments: “This paragraph feels unrelated to this section – perhaps it isn’t necessary or maybe move it to the first section.”

Negative feedback using blanket statements: “I found your idea to be overly simplistic and uniformed.”

Critical feedback with specific comments: “Perhaps your concept of nursing care cannot be applied to each discipline for this example. I would recommend just an examination of one example.”

As a Reviewer…

Try to present your feedback as a perspective and not the “truth.”

Peer Review Questions to ask BEFORE reading:

What is your relationship to the content/topic?

The manuscript is in your area of expertise

The manuscript is an area of interest

The manuscript is an area unknown to you

What biases might you have about this topic and can you identify them?

Know your limits – is this content too far from your area for you to be constructively critical?

Being Reviewed…

Logistics – inform your reviewer:

Where are you in the writing process?

Formulating ideas

Drafting ideas

Editing/Revision

What level of feedback are you requesting?

Brainstorming about the topic

Responses to content/ideas

Critical thinking/questioning about the content or idea

Editorial comments

Editing for typos/grammatical error

It is OK to have emotions about our work – otherwise, we would not be human. Try to take feedback as information and not fact.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download