Peer Review

Prior to completing this forum, you’ll read/watch materials from two sources:

• The American Public University Library System‘s page describes the process by which academic research papers get published, including the role of peer review in that process.
• The Feedback & Improvement page comes from ELI, which is software for facilitating peer review in college writing classes. We aren’t using the ELI software, but we are following a similar approach to the one they describe in Part 4 of the reading.
• The Reviewer Feedback Example.pdf is an example of peer review in the professional publishing process.
• Watch the Week 4 videos about pre-empirical and empirical research.

After you’ve finished reading/viewing, write a 350-500 word post by Monday at 11:59pm that responds to each of the following:

• Were you familiar with the academic publishing process before watching the American Public University Library System’s video? If not, what surprised you? If so, what has been your previous experience with academic publishing?
• What is the role of peer review in the academic publishing process? How is this similar and different from the kinds of peer review for college writing classes (described on the ELI website)?
• What kind of feedback do professional peer reviewers provide during the academic publishing process (refer to the Reviewer Feedback Example.pdf)? How can you use this example as a model for your own feedback giving practices?
• What kind of feedback do researchers need during the pre-empirical, empirical, and writing phases of a research project?
• How has peer review fallen short of your expectations as a student writer in the past? What kind of feedback have your peers given you, and how does that compare to the feedback you wish they’d give you? Feel free to vent a little.
• What can you do to as a professional peer reviewer for your research team in this course? In other words, how can you meet your own and others’ expectations of a helpful peer reviewer?

Make sure your post includes at least one direct quote or paraphrase. I recommend you reference something from the assigned readings/videos. Make sure you clearly indicate (a) who was talking/writing, and (b) where the information came from.

Example: Rebecca Zantjer pointed out that …. (Feedback and Improvement page).

Example: In the ___video, SpeakerName noted … (SpeakerName; SpeakerName).

You’ll notice that it’s okay to put the person’s name either in the parenthesis or in the text that introduces the quote/paraphrase. Similarly, the location of the talking/writing can go in either place. The most important point is that both pieces of information are present, either in the parenthesis or in the introductory text.

There are rules for how to format these in-text citations in academic writing, and we work on that later. For now, I just want you to get into the habit of always making sure your reader knows exactly who you are citing and where the information came from.