Peer Review is one of the core tenets of publishing research studies in scholarly journals. It is a process used to determine the quality of manuscripts before they are published. This is done by engaging independent experts (Peer-reviewers) in the research area to assess the manuscripts. Peer-reviewers' role is to vigorously evaluate the submitted manuscript to determine if it can be published or not. As part of the report from the peer review process; these experts also indicate their concerns/recommendations that authors must resolve before a paper can be published.
The assessment considers;
The Peer Review Process can be summarized as a process that goes through the stages depicted below.
Individual journals adopt different peer review models; it can either be open, anonymized or transparent. Refer to journal specifications for details on the peer review model model used.
Open: Peer reviewers' names are included in the peer review report. Through this model, authors are aware of the reviewers' names during the peer review process and vise-versa. This model offers complete transparency.
Anonymized: This can either be single, double or triple. The most commonly adopted model is single anonymized through which the peer reviewer knows the identity of authors whereas peer-reviewers' identity is not revealed to authors. Double anonymized model does not reveal the identity of both the authors and peer reviewers. Lastly, triple anonymized model is whereby identities of authors, peer reviewers and editors are not revealed to each other.
Transparent: If the manuscript is published, the peer review reports will be availed alongside the article online. However, names of reviewers are withheld.
Video Credit: American Chemical Society
