1. Peer review
Peer review is a method of evaluating the quality of a research work or idea by experts working in similar research areas (peers). Peer review is essential in scholarly publishing as it scrutinizes the robustness and originality of research work and helps improve it to meet the required standards of the journal, publisher or funding body. A good peer review is necessary in maintaining the integrity and quality of scientific literature.
The concept of the peer review process is ancient. Charaka Samhita describes Siddhanta, a concept similar to peer review, as ‘a demonstrated truth established after several examinations and reasonings’. During the ancient times, hypotheses, observations and experiments would be discussed and critiqued in depth by experts working in similar research areas. These discussions and critique or the ‘peer review’ would include repeated examinations of the observations or experiments and led to proving the same with proper justification [1]. Ishap bin Ali Al Rahwi of (854–931 CE) Syria provided the first documented description of a peer review process in his book, ‘Ethics of the Physician’. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society was the first journal to adopt and implement the peer review process in 1665 [2]. Since then, the peer review process has undergone massive transformations especially, over the past few decades. Today, journals employ various pre-publication peer review models such as single-blind, double-blind, triple-blind or open peer review. Each model has its own advantages and disadvantages. Post-publication review involves reviewing articles post-acceptance. However, in spite of the differences in the review models, reviewers or referees play a crucial role across all models in scholarly communication.
The role of a reviewer is often voluntary and remains a thank-less job. However, it has several benefits for not only the society, but also for the reviewers themselves. By peer reviewing manuscripts, reviewers are able to support and contribute to the advancement of their disciplines, improve their subject-knowledge and be aware of the recent developments in their discipline. This in turn helps the reviewers to conduct better research. The peer review process also provides training for early career researchers which may be useful for their career development. Today, several publishers and organizations have reviewer recognition platforms to recognize and appreciate the reviewers.
2. Peer Review Week 2020
The Peer Review Week is observed globally by individuals, institutions, organizations to celebrate the crucial role of peer review in scholarly communication. The Peer Review Week provides an opportunity to showcase the work of editors and reviewers, share best practices in peer review along with latest innovations or applications which may be useful for editors and reviewers [3].
The Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (J-AIM) is an internationally circulated open access official publication of the World Ayurveda Foundation (WAF) and University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU), Bengaluru, India. The journal is one of the top journals in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Integrative Medicine categories and has been involved in activities related to training in science communication and capacity building since it’s inception in 2010. J-AIM follows a stringent peer review process and maintains quality and high standards of peer review. The journal understands the essential role of reviewers and editors in the peer review process and hence, in recognition of their efforts, observed the Peer Review Week this year. The theme for this year’s Peer Review Week was ‘Trust in Peer Review’ showcasing the working of a peer review process and its importance, especially in the current COVID-19 global pandemic.
The J-AIM organized a ‘Reviewers Meet’ on 22nd September 2020. The objective behind this meet was to acknowledge the efforts and contributions and to interact with the esteemed reviewers of the journal who have been contributing quality reviews for a decade. The journal invited its best 25–30 reviewers from the past decade along with it’s Editorial Board Members and the Editorial Working Group for the Meet. The reviewers actively participated in the Meet and suggested various ways to improve the journal’s existing peer-review process, outreach, and impact. The Founder Editor-in-Chief and other editors also shared their thoughts and experiences about the journal’s decadal journey since its inception.
A virtual event comprising of expert talks and panel discussion by several national and international scientists, reviewers and editors known for their contributions in research communication was conducted on 25th September 2020. The aim of this event was to create awareness about the critical role of peer review process in research along with fundamentals, stakeholders, ethics and challenges involved during the review process. The resource persons included Prof John Weeks (Editor-in-Chief, JACM, USA), Prof Bhushan Patwardhan (Vice-Chairman, UGC, New Delhi, India and Founder Editor-in-Chief, J-AIM), Prof S C Lakhotia (BHU Distinguished Professor and SERB Distinguished Fellow, India), Dr Peush Sahni (Editor, NMJI and President, IAMJE, India), Dr Sanjay Pai (Executive Editor, Indian Journal of Cancer, India), Dr Rakesh Datta (Editor-in-Chief, MJAFI, India), Ms Surabhi Shukla (Executive Publisher, Elsevier, India), and Dr Monica Mulay (Ayurveda practitioner, Pune, India). The sessions were moderated by two Editors of J-AIM - Dr Ashwini Godbole (TDU, Bengaluru, India) and Dr Kishor Patwardhan (BHU, Varanasi, India).
The resource persons spoke on various important topics pertaining to the peer review process.
The first expert talk was on ‘Introduction to peer review’ by Dr Sanjay Pai wherein he discussed the concept, history and need of peer review and provided an overview of the different types of peer review. He also discussed the fundamentals and the pros and cons of the peer review process and shared a few interesting anecdotes and experiences related to the same. This session was followed by a talk on ‘Path to being an ideal reviewer’ by Dr Rakesh Datta. He emphasized on the need to review articles and discussed the roles and responsibilities of reviewers and who can become reviewers. He also enlisted the top ten tips and tricks to write and assess good quality peer review.
The expert talk on ‘Peer Review – An Editor’s Perspective’ was conducted by Prof John Weeks who shared his experiences and challenges in the peer review process, especially that of TCAM from an editorial point of view. He made several important recommendations for editors and reviewers to overcome the challenges in the peer review process. Keeping the theme of the Peer Review Week in mind, Dr Peush Sahni spoke about ethics in peer review and how to build trust and maintain integrity in the same during his session on ‘Trust in peer review’. He shared his experiences and guidelines regarding ethics involved in peer review, conflict of interest and also shared when to decline a review request and how to flag misconduct.
The expert talks were followed by a panel discussion on ‘Peer review in interdisciplinary research’. All the resource persons mentioned earlier were part of the panel discussion. The panelists shared their personal experiences and challenges while reviewing articles from interdisciplinary areas of research. The current COVID-19 pandemic has seen an increase in the number of research publications. The panelists shared insights on how to review during these difficult times wherein timely and quality publication of research is of utmost importance. One of the panelists, a first-time author, shared her experiences about the peer review process and how it helped improve her manuscript. Addressing reviewer comments and resolving editor and reviewer conflicts were also discussed during the panel discussion. The panelists also shared a few Reviewer Recognition Platforms offered by publishers or like Publons which would be useful for reviewers to gain recognition and appreciation for their contributions towards the peer review process.
The expert talks and panel discussion were live-streamed on both Facebook and YouTube accounts of J-AIM and WAF respectively. The participants posted their questions during the livestream and these were shared and then answered by the speakers. The event was well-received and was attended by early-career and senior researchers, reviewers, authors and editors.
3. Future activities
It has been observed that there is a lack of awareness and knowledge regarding peer review, publication ethics, scientific writing, and research integrity among the researchers. Based on the feedback received for the J-AIM Peer Review Week event, it is evident that specialized training programs are required for not only reviewers, but also authors and editors as well. The Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune had conducted a three-day national workshop on ‘Publication Ethics and Scientific Writing’ in 2018. The workshop was intended for authors, reviewers and editors and received an overwhelming response from across India. The participants of both the national workshop and the recent Peer Review Week webinar had said there is a lack of proper guidance for publication ethics, scientific writing, and peer review and training programs would be helpful to gain insights of the same. A similar opinion published in BMC Medicine states that training programs are required to address the needs of the researchers as in spite of the availability of various guidelines; the researchers fail to understand how to use them [4].
Hence, it is pertinent to develop and conduct courses, workshops and training programs for potential authors, editors, and reviewers. Conducting these activities for postgraduate students, PhD scholars and early-career researchers would be more beneficial as it has been observed that by the time researchers reach a stage in their career when they start to peer review or author articles, it is too late to train them in the same [4]. The workshops and training programs should be aimed at research capacity building and creating awareness about publication ethics, scientific writing and research integrity. The activities can be designed such that the participants are exposed to different domains of science communication. We hope that such activities will be useful for the participants in their research career as they will gain practical experience in publication ethics, scientific writing, editing, and peer review.
Source(s) of funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors are members of the editorial team of the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. However, they were not involved in any editorial or peer-review process of this manuscript.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge Ms Prachi Erram, Dr Swapnil Borse and Dr Girish Tillu for their suggestions.
Footnotes
Peer review under responsibility of Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore.
References
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