The importance of peer review in publishing is instilled in academic scholars early in their education. It’s a necessary part of life in a “publish or perish” professional industry. Peer review was initiated with the intent to give an author another perspective on their work to help them improve it, but over time, this beneficial process has become something that is often stressful to those on the receiving end of a “review.”

There are multiple varieties of peer reviews, but each of them is established with the intent of ensuring that the paper that is currently being considered for publication is worthy of the journal. It must be accurate, relevant, authentic, and wholly transparent, following all the guidelines, rules, and laws of the field in which it is potential to be published. Most peer reviews are at least partially blind, in which one or both parties remain anonymous until after the review is completed. However, there is a push for face-to-face peer reviews, and those in favor of them have effective arguments to defend their rationale.

Why is Peer Review Used?

Anyone can submit a manuscript to a publisher, but without a peer review process in which the paper is evaluated for accuracy and relevancy, that work may not be credible. Part of the process is peer review by individuals who are considered to be experts in the field the journal focuses on. They are your “peers” in the review process, and they will read your work and judge the validity of it.

However, this “judgment” isn’t done with malicious intent. Yes, the reviewers do aim to catch any mistakes, but they are returned to the author with the instruction of correcting them, not a “pass or fail” evaluation. The author can then fix the errors or add more content as necessary and resubmit the manuscript for potential publishing.

The peer-review process is never 100% accurate, but it is a traditional, universally accepted method in which a paper’s validity is determined.

The Common Types of Peer Review

Although the peer-review process is used almost universally, each journal has its own type of preferred review. There are three main types: single-blind, double-blind, and open review and each one has pros and cons.

1. Single-blind reviews: A single-blind review is one in which the reviewer knows who the writer is but the author won’t ever (in general) know who reviewed their paper. This is done for the reviewer’s benefit in that they are able to feel confident that they can leave wholly honest feedback without complaint, and the author’s benefit because the reviewer can be in-depth and clear.
2. Double-blind reviews: The most popular method of review in humanities and social sciences, the double-blind review is when neither party knows who is involved in the process. There can be no bias, as is possible in a single-blind study.
3. Open reviews: As the opposite of a double-blind, an open review is a process in which a paper is reviewed and both parties are aware of the other after the fact. The reviewer knows that after the article is published, the author will learn their identity.

Every publishing journal has a preference for its own type of peer review process. But another one is quickly gaining traction: the face-to-face peer review.

Why Face-to-Face Peer Review is Gaining Ground

Peer review has been around for hundreds of years, but it has a lot of criticism today. Some of the critiques include the concern that the order and sequencing of comments are not understood well by the author. Other complaints that the reviewer is too critical or the author is too defensive are commonly used against the process.

Face-to-face proponents argue that this method facilitates the revision process better because the researcher and the reviewer can work together to make the most of the review process. By communicating together, the comments, training, and revision requests are clearly established. When a suggestion might have been rejected by the writer out of hand, it can be explained by the reviewer in a way that the author then realizes the benefits of their paper. The author becomes the learner in the process, and with collaborative learning, their knowledge of how to improve their writing increases, to be used in the current and future publications as a means of adding insight and clarity to the entire scientific community.

Maximizing Your Research with Impactio

The peer-review process is required in publications for the entire academic idea of disseminating knowledge to run smoothly. Everyone benefits from the understanding that the science presented to a global audience is unbiased and ethical. As such, all scholars need a program that lets them design high-quality work to ready for publishing, and that’s where Impactio comes in.

Impactio is the all-in-one publishing and networking platform that was specifically created with the needs of the academic world in mind. All the tools necessary to put together a manuscript are in one place. As a new or seasoned author, you can create professional PDF documents and web pages to impress your reviewer, start an academic profile to share with others, and track the academic impact of all your publications from the ease of Impactio’s impressive program!