How to write an effective journal peer review using a staged writing approach: a best-practice guide for early-career researchers.

Abstract

Journal peer review is a gatekeeper in the scientific process, determining which papers are published in academic journals. It also supports authors in improving their papers before they go to press. Training for early-career researchers on how to conduct a high-quality peer review is scarce, however, and there are concerns about the quality of peer review in the health sciences. Standardized training and guidance may help reviewers to improve the quality of their feedback. In this paper, we approach peer review as a staged writing activity and apply writing process best practices to help early-career researchers and others learn to create a comprehensive and respectful peer-review report. The writing stages of reading, planning and composing are reflected in our three-step peer-review process. The first step involves reading the entire manuscript to get a sense of the paper as a whole. The second step is to comprehensive evaluate the paper. The third step, of writing the review, emphasizes a respectful tone, providing feedback that motivates revision as well as balance in pointing out strengths and making suggestions. Detailed checklists that are provided in the Supplementary material (available as Supplementary data at IJE online) aid in the paper evaluation process and examples demonstrate points about writing an effective review.