Speaker 1: Would you like to peek behind the curtain and better understand the peer review process for scientific journals? In this video, I'll explain to you the concept behind the peer review process, the various types of peer review, how to determine if an article has been peer reviewed, and which types of articles you should avoid referencing in your own academic writing. And now, without further ado, welcome to Schreib. To ensure quality control in science, it has become standard practice for a submitted article to be anonymously reviewed by two or more experts in the same field of research. An article is only published if the authors can satisfactorily address the criticism raised by these reviewers. The history of the peer review process as we know it dates back to 1731. The Royal Society of Edinburgh then inspired several editors of philosophical journals to have their contributions reviewed by a committee of experts. It is also recorded that Albert Einstein had his issues with the peer review process. In the early 20th century, Einstein primarily published in German-language journals, which at the time did not have a peer review process. When he sent an article, by mail of course, to the prestigious Physical Review in America, he was surprised by their practice of presenting his paper to an independent expert. In a letter, he fumed over this, withdrew his work, and published it elsewhere. He believed the comments to be nonsensical and saw no reason to address them. The three most common types of peer review are single-blind, double-blind, and open peer review. In the single-blind peer review process, the reviewers know the authors' names, but the authors do not know the reviewers' names. In the double-blind peer review process, both the authors and the reviewers remain anonymous. This requires an editor who knows everyone's identity. In the open peer review process, everyone knows each other at all times. When an article is published, the reviewer reports are also published. This one is particularly progressive because it creates a lot of transparency and allows the iterations of an article to be tracked. But it creates other problems and biases if the anonymity is taken away. So what happens during the peer review process? It all begins with the authors submitting their work. The manuscript then lands on the desk of an editor, who has two options. Should the article be sent for peer review or not? If not, the authors receive a desk reject, meaning the article is not even sent to reviewers, but is directly and irrevocably rejected by the editor. Reasons for a desk reject can vary. For example, an article might be linguistically or stylistically so far from a publishable standard that it doesn't make sense to occupy the time of several reviewers. However, the most common reason for a desk reject is actually the fit with the journal. Journals have specific thematic focuses, and if an article deviates from these, even if it's of high quality, it is immediately rejected. In a few cases, an article may be so good and important that it is accepted immediately after a round of brief feedback. For instance, many journals accelerated their peer review processes temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic. It would have made no sense to drag urgently needed research through a process that takes years. Normally, if a manuscript passes the desk stage, it moves to an editor who will oversee the article until publication. As you can see, there are different types of editors, such as an editor-in-chief, senior editors, or associate editors. The lowest category of editors, so to speak, is responsible for recruiting the reviewers. Sometimes this editor remains anonymous, and sometimes not. This editor, however, sends the article to two to three reviewers, sets a deadline, and then it's a waiting game. Once the reports come back, the editor reviews the reports, and of course the article, and writes their own report. This usually summarizes the key points of the reviewer reports, and may also include additional points noticed by the editor. The editor also decides about the next steps for the manuscript. They can follow the reviewer's recommendations, or override them. In either case, all reports are sent to the authors. If the editor unjustifiably overrides all reviewers, they risk trouble from above, such as from the editor-in-chief. If the editor votes in favor of the paper, the authors receive a deadline by which they may revise their manuscript, and then the process starts over. Ideally, the same reviewers are invited to check the revision. A major revision involves substantial changes to the manuscript, while minor revisions, or a conditionally accept, only require minor adjustments. The number of rounds an article must go through depends on the journal. The most prestigious journals often have the most difficult and longest processes, or the toughest desk. So what happens after a peer review process? In single- and double-blind processes, reviewer reports are generally not published, even if they are anonymous. This has its advantages, such as not having to worry about offending someone when criticizing their work, or even rejecting it from publication. Editors often face the unenviable task of having to reject works from renowned author teams, subsequently facing their anger and disappointment. The reason the peer review process works is solely due to the reputation people gain from being a reviewer or editor of a particular journal. Moreover, everyone wants their own articles to be reviewed, so you might think twice before declining such a request, especially at the start of your scientific career. Before I'll explain to you how you can identify peer-reviewed articles, please consider to give this video a like and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more of this type of content. So there are essentially two ways to identify peer-reviewed articles. Option one, you research the outlet. You're sometimes not sure how, but somehow you stumbled upon an article through Google Scholar or even Google. What you can do now is research the name of the journal or conference and visit its website. There you will usually find information on whether it employs a peer-review process or not. But that's not the end of the story. There are thousands of questionable journals, such as the open-access journals published by MDPI. Although they officially have a peer-review process, it's a joke. Their business model is that authors pay a fee and then their article gets published. If you're interested in a video about such questionable practices in science, just leave me a comment under this video. With established publishers, authors or universities must also pay a fee, but you can at least assume that the peer-review process is conducted properly. Over time, try to identify the established publishers and journals or conferences in your discipline. Citing articles of dubious origin can negatively impact your own academic work. So even if the article fits perfectly, it might be best to steer clear. Option two, you filter already during your search. If you only search databases that index peer-reviewed high-quality articles, you won't even have to ask this question. Find out which databases list the most important publication outlets of your discipline and limit your search to these databases.