How fast is peer review?

Typically, when a paper is considered for peer review, each round of peer review takes approximately 45-90 days. Desk decisions (usually rejections for reasons such as the manuscript not being a good fit for the journal) or acceptance post minor revision may happen in less time.

How long should peer review take?

Short answer: It takes up to about 3 months (studies have shown peer review typically takes 7–12 weeks), but there are a lot of variables to take into account. These include the journal's internal processes and publication frequency, availability of peer reviewers, and other things out of your control.

Is peer review a quick process?

A question often asked by authors, but also important to editors, is how long does it take between submission and publication of an article. This is a hard question to answer, but often peer review is the lengthiest part of this process. Journals usually ask reviewers to complete their reviews within 3-4 weeks.

Is peer review time consuming?

These figures differ between accepted and rejected manuscripts, with first response time of rejected manuscripts taking, on average, 4 weeks longer. While writing a peer review may take between 4 and 8 h, in only 19% of all reported cases authors were informed about the outcome in less than a month.

How can I speed up my peer review?

Recommend potential reviewers: Finding qualified reviewers can be one of the most time-consuming stages of the peer review process. Providing 3 to 5 reviewer recommendations may help reduce the Editor's time spent on finding qualified researchers to evaluate your manuscript.

How to Peer-Review Like a Pro (Step-by-Step Guide)

Why does peer review take so long?

However, reviewers are incredibly busy – they often have research, teaching and writing responsibilities not to mention other reviews (and that's before even thinking about a work-life balance). This means that it isn't always possible for them to get back to a review invitation immediately.

Can peer review reject?

Inadequate data often leads to manuscript rejection during the peer review process, as it indicates that the data collected doesn't convincingly support the conclusions.

What is the golden rule of peer review?

Journals have no way to coerce reviewers to return their critiques faster. To greatly shorten the time to publication, all actors in this altruistic network should abide by the Golden Rule of Reviewing: review for others as you would have others review for you.

What not to do in a peer review?

Reviews that make assumptions about the paper without providing specific feedback are not helpful to the author. Review comments should offer guidance to the authors on how they can broaden their research so it may contribute something to the field. The review comments should give the authors actionable feedback.

Why is peer review difficult?

They will sometimes miss critical information in a paper or have personal biases when reviewing, causing dubious research to sometimes be published. Furthermore, another study shows that there may be a bias in favor of the institutions that the reviewers themselves are affiliated with.

What are the 3 kinds of peer review?

The three most common types of peer review are single-anonymized, double-anonymized, and open peer review.

What comes after peer review?

Step 5: Decision Once the peer review is complete, the reviewers submit their reports to the editor. Based on the feedback received, the editor decides regarding the manuscript. The decision can fall into several categories, including: Acceptance: The manuscript is accepted for publication without any major revisions.

What is a typical peer review process?

The peer review process starts once you have submitted your paper to a journal. After submission, your paper will be sent for assessment by independent experts in your field. The reviewers are asked to judge the validity, significance, and originality of your work.

What is the rejection rate for peer review?

Studies indicate that 21% of papers are rejected without review, and approximately 40% of papers are rejected after peer review. If your paper has been rejected prior to peer review due to lack of subject fit, then find a new journal to submit your work to and move on.

How often should peer review meet?

Peer review is a key component of a health center's Quality Assurance/Improvement Program and is considered a QI assessment; therefore, health centers should complete peer review a minimum of quarterly to identify trends and address areas of risk.

Is peer review worth it?

Peer review is integral to ensuring that robust, high quality research is published. In essence, it's the independent assessment of a research paper by experts in that field. Its purpose is to evaluate a manuscript's quality and suitability for publication.

What are the 7 peer review tips?

What are some of the risks dangers in a peer review process?

Reviewers often have strong opinions about methods and theories in their areas of expertise. Unprofessional reviewers will let those opinions interfere with their ability to provide fair, constructive reviews. Unclear expectations and inadequate training.

What is the most important rule of peer review?

General comments to the authors

Peer review should be comprehensive, succinct, and accurate, and comment on the importance, novelty, and impact of the study. It is helpful to give constructive feedback to their colleagues since respectful comments are the key to a good peer review.

Is peer review ethical?

Peer review is critical to maintaining the quality of science; there is therefore an ethical imperative for scientists to participate in this process when they are able to do so.

What is the final step in peer review?

The Decision is Communicated

The editor sends a decision email to the author including any relevant reviewer comments. Comments will be anonymous if the journal follows a single-anonymous or double-anonymous peer review model.

How many reviews do you need for peer review?

18 Thus, with a commonly used number of three reviewers assigned to each manuscript received, a journal with an 80% rejection rate will need 15 reviewers to complete the task in order to publish one article. 18 Figure 1 provides the shape of the series with two to five reviewers assigned per manuscript received.

What is the most common type of peer review?

The most common type of peer review is single-blind (or single anonymized) review. Here, the names of the reviewers are not known by the author.

Is peer review in crisis?

As long as we continue to chug within the current system, we will continue to have a problem with peer review. There are too many journals. This structural problem is not as often recognized and discussed, but we just keep on birthing journals.

Is peer review confidential?

Peer reviewers have an obligation to preserve confidentiality during the review process if they have been asked to do so. While this obligation might seem obvious, it can be compromised in some seemingly harmless and other more harmful ways.