It’s Peer Review Week! Did you know that at New Phytologist we have our very own Peer Review team? Our team are passionate about providing an efficient and high-quality peer review experience.
Throughout this week we will be posting various articles about our peer review process, including some fantastic tips from our Editors.
Today, let’s start with why you should review papers. We all know how busy our working lives are and finding time to review can be tricky. You might be wondering what’s in it for you.
Read on to find out why reviewing papers is a great way to boost your academic career and benefit your research.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0.
You get to see the latest research in your field
One of our Editors, Dior Kelley, advises that by reviewing papers “you get to see the breadth of work in terms of the types of analyses that are being brought together from different approaches.”
Reviewing papers on a regular basis allows you to gain insight into the topics of the latest and emerging research. This allows you to stay up to-date with current research and stay active in your field.
You can use the experience to improve your own academic writing
The more you review, the more you will become familiar with what good research papers look like and how they are presented. This is especially important if you are at an early stage in your academic career as one of our Editors, Ralph Panstruga, notes:
You really get training in writing reviews, especially if you do it with your supervisor; you get constructive feedback and this you will need for your further career in academia.
Reviewing the latest research papers, and seeing how the data are presented in a visually appealing way, is a learning experience that you can apply to your own research papers.
You are contributing to improving research
By providing constructive feedback to authors, you are helping to improve their research and strengthen the scientific record. We know that research focuses on real world problems, so it needs to be reliable.
By reviewing a paper, you are helping to ensure that the world is getting access to high-quality, reliable research; peer reviewers are very important!
Image credit: ThisisEngineering on Unsplash.
We hope we have convinced you to participate in peer review! If you are interested in reviewing for New Phytologist please send an email with 5–8 key words that best describe your research interests to New Phytologist Central Office.
At New Phytologist, we disclose the final decision to our reviewers and if the paper is accepted for publication, you will be sent a link to the article once it is published on Early View.