Writing for Publication: Transitions and Tools that Support Scholars’ Success - Mary Renck Jalongo, Olivia N. Saracho 2016

Serving as a Peer Reviewer
From Outsider to Insider in Scholarly Publishing
Writing as Professional Development

The concept of peer review is over 400 years old; it originated as a way to document scientific discoveries by having an independent third party record the inventor’s name and the date. The practice of having other professionals review manuscripts independently prior to publishing them continues as a standard practice across the disciplines (Godlee & Jefferson, 2003; Solomon, 2007). They are referred to as peers because they are considered to be sufficiently knowledgeable to assess the quality of work and its contribution. As it applies to the evaluation of manuscripts, the goal of peer review is for the reviewers to evaluate the quality of the work and its suitability for the specific outlet/audience. After the peer review process is complete, it is up to the editor to “review the reviews” and render an editorial decision (Murray & Raths, 1996).