Peer Review of Manuscripts

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE IMPORTANCE OF PEER REVIEW
3. THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS
4. REVIEWING THE INTRODUCTION
5. REVIEWING THE METHODS SECTION
6. REVIEWING THE RESULTS
7. REVIEWING THE DISCUSSION, TITLE, AUTHORS, & ABSTRACT
8. OTHER IMPORTANT TOPICS
9. CHECKLIST OF REVIEW CRITERIA
10. AUTHORSHIP ETHICS
11. ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
12. ABOUT THE MODULE

INTRODUCTION

Latha Chandran & Virginia Niebuhr

Publication is an essential way to make one's work a genuine scholarly contribution because publication allows for dissemination to, and potential use by, a wide audience. For work to be published in scholarly journals, it must pass the peer review process.

Learning how to peer review can be important to academicians in several ways. First, as an academic scholar, it is important to volunteer as a peer reviewer to contribute your own expertise to your profession. Reviewing is an activity which can add to your credentials as a scholar. Second, you are more likely to have your own work published if you understand the review process. Third, learning the methods of peer review will make you a better writer.

This module is designed to help you improve your skills for peer reviewing manuscripts submitted for publication.

With permission from the publisher of Academic Medicine, this module is built around the CHECKLIST OF REVIEW CRITERIA FOR RESEARCH MANUSCRIPTS, one of the documents in a monograph series prepared by a Joint Task Force of Academic Medicine and the Group of Educational Affairs of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and published in Academic Medicine in 2001.

Monograph Series: Bordage G, Caelleigh AS, Steinecke A, Bland CJ, Crandall SJ, McGaghie WC, Pangaro LN, Penn G, Regehr G, Shea JA. Review Criteria for Research Manuscripts. Academic Medicine. 76(9), September 2001. pp 900-975. http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/toc/2001/09000

CHECKLIST OF REVIEW CRITERIA FOR RESEARCH MANUSCRIPTS. Academic Medicine. September 2001, 76 (9), pp 920-921. http://pdfs.journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/2001/09000/Review_Criteria.20.pdf

OBJECTIVES

After completing the module, participants should be able to:

1. access and use the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals
2. describe the peer review process for manuscripts
3. discuss authorship ethics related to manuscripts
4. use the Checklist of Review Criteria for Research Manuscripts from joint task force of Academic Medicine and GEA-RIME
5. access and use three useful resources for manuscript reviewers
6. demonstrate responsibilities and etiquette of reviewers