Do Anonymous and Independent Experts Review Scientific Journals

The practice of suggesting peer reviewers past authors for their work is controversial. Peer review is a key part of the academic publishing process. Ordinarily, qualified experts review submitted manufactures to check their quality and lucifer for the journals. Usually, editors of the peer-reviewed journals choose these experts. The reviewer'southward identity tin can be bearding or disclosed depending on the journal'southward policies.

Frequently journals require authors to suggest reviewers during the manuscript submission process. Potential reviewers are contained experts in your field of inquiry. Notwithstanding, this practise can sometimes cause controversies and put authors in an upstanding quandary.

Dos and Don'ts of Suggesting Reviewers

When y'all suggest peer reviewers for your work, you should stay unbiased. As scholars accept noted, "An author-suggested peer reviewer choice might besides tempt authors to seek experts who might be more receptive or sympathetic to the authors' message or results, and thus favor the upshot of that paper." But yous should try not to autumn into this trap.

Follow these tips to choose potential reviewers in an ethical manner:

• DO explore the research field to find scholars who might want to review your work.
• DO give a various list of reviewers from unlike institutions, in different related fields, and with different points of view.
• DO ensure that your recommendations are experts in your field.
• DO take your time and be thorough when you make suggestions. Your reference list tin can be a starting point.
• DON'T suggest experts whom yous know personally.
• DON'T list potential reviewers who work for your target journal.
• DON'T suggest reviewers considering they will agree with your piece of work.
• DON'T suggest reviewers who work at the same institution every bit you lot do.
• DON'T have all the reviewers from the same country. Information technology is important to have a global perspective.

To a higher place all, Do follow the journal's guidelines for suggesting experts for your manuscript. Some journals do provide a list of requests for author suggestions (come across this case from Energy & Fuels).

Related: Finished picking reviewers for your research paper? Read this article to learn more about how to reply to referee comments!

Pros and Cons of Writer-Suggested Peer Reviewing

Why is writer-suggested peer reviewing so controversial? Because even the virtually honest authors might suggest readers who will view their piece of work favorably. At worst, information technology may open the door to fake peer review. In addition, the editor of a peer-reviewed journal may not disclose to the authors, the reviewers he or she has chosen.  However, the reviewers however know that the writer suggested them. This can influence the reviewer'south determination.

Research supports the problems with author-suggested peer review. Lutz Bornmann and Hans-Dieter Daniel published an article. They asked, "Do author-suggested reviewers charge per unit submissions more than favorably than editor-suggested reviewers?" The results were clear.  Editor-suggested reviewers rated manuscripts between 30% and 42% less favorably than writer-suggested reviewers did, indicating that author-suggested reviewers give amend reviews.

Though author-suggested reviewing has some ethical problems, it has some advantages too. Suggesting your own readers might assistance your work find a home. Today, inquiry fields are very complex. Every field has countless sub-fields. No one is an expert in every sub-field. So authors might know better how to choose experts in their sub-fields.

Moreover, author-suggested reviews permit editors to focus on other tasks in the publication procedure. For some journals, assigning peer reviewers means a huge time delivery, which can divert journal'due south resources, affecting quality. Though some people would disagree with this point, information technology is one potential statement for author-suggested peer reviews.

Share Your Experience

The peer review process is getting more than complex every day. Accept you been asked to propose peer reviewers for your ain article? How did you handle the state of affairs? Did you lot find information technology ethically questionable? What is your opinion of the author-suggested peer review process? Write to us in the comments to permit us know!

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