19 June 2014
Peer-review is not just a mark of excellence, it's a pathway to excellence. It's also a path with dual lanes. As researchers, we need peer review to help us identify our blind spots, remove our warts, and sharpen our ideas. As we gain expertise, we’ll also be called upon to give that peer-review to others. Are we prepared?
Historian William Kelleher Storey’s classic Writing History offers sage advice for anyone who is tip-toeing down that path, with visions of snickering ogres just waiting to devour them:
"A critical reader will assess both the strengths and weaknesses of your paper. Sometimes it is difficult to take criticism, but remember that your best critics spend a great deal of time thinking about your work. This in itself is a compliment. Even if you conclude that the critic's advice is bad, the criticism has had the positive effect of making you reconfirm your position."1
Educator Michelle Trim takes a different tack, with a guide for those who want to learn—or sharpen—their own skills as peer reviewers. Her {ahem} trim little handbook takes a nuts-and-bolts approach that addresses virtually every stage of the process in a mere 49 pages.2
Both works are well worth the read.
1. William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide for Students, 3d ed. (N.Y. and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 117.
2. Michelle Trim, What Every Student Should Know about Practicing Peer Review (New York: Pearson-Longman: 2007).
PHOTO CREDIT: www.CanStockPhoto.com, Image 16747698; used under license.