How to … Build a Peer Reviewer Community in Health Professions Education

Peer review is the cornerstone of academic publishing that upholds the quality and integrity of scholarly work. However, there is an ever-growing struggle to recruit peer reviewers, termed the ‘peer review crisis’, driven by a shrinking academic workforce and increased workload. Additionally, there is a notable lack of standardised training for peer reviewers which poses a challenge in maintaining high-quality reviews. In this ‘How to …’ paper, we demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of establishing a community of practice (CoP) aimed at fostering professional development among multiprofessional early-career scholars in health professions education. A CoP is structured around three core components: domain, community and practice. This community's domain focuses on recruiting scholars with a shared interest in health professions education, research and peer review. The community's component promotes inclusive and regular interactions through synchronous meetings and asynchronous communication, encouraging engagement, mutual learning and collaboration among diverse participants. Practice is cultivated through peer-led teaching sessions and the use of digital platforms, enabling participants to build peer review competencies collaboratively. Based on our experience as participants in the Association for the Studies of Medical Education (ASME) and The Clinical Teacher (TCT) awarded programme of professional development in educational research and peer review, we propose that this model may help other institutional health professions education groups and journals adopt similar practices. Providing early-career scholars with opportunities to develop academic skills will not only help create a sustainable, high-quality pool of peer reviewers but also cultivate a more inclusive and skilled scholarly community.