What is Peer Review?
Peer review is the process by which research and scholarship is assessed, revised, and circulated. This can happen at many stages of the research process, in both formal and informal ways, but typically “peer review” refers to the feedback respected experts or “peers” give to prospective authors on matters of content, structure, argumentation, and bibliography. Peer review often happens through questionnaires or “reader report forms” that journals and presses send to invited readers. Peer review distinguishes scholarly publishing from other forms of publication.
Scholarly articles, proposals for scholarly books, and full manuscripts typically undergo some form of peer review. Editors seek out peer reviewers, solicit their feedback, and frame their reports for authors who then write a response detailing how they will address the concerns raised by these readers. Once all these materials are assembled (the full manuscripts of either journal articles or book projects, reports from peer reviewers, the author's response to reviewers, as well as author CVs), editors take the project to the press’s faculty or editorial board. The board reviews the materials and decides whether or not to approve projects for publication. Only after this process is complete is an article or book put into production--that is, readied for final publication.
According to the Association of University Presses, peer review “provides feedback that is both stringent and fair, enables an author to strengthen a work in progress, and adds value and meaning to the work that is ultimately published, helping inform the deliberations of press staff.” Peer review is a key mechanism in the dissemination of scholarship and central to how disciplinary knowledge is produced and legitimized.
