8 Developing Your Peer-Review Practice
Introduction
In this final module you are asked to generate even more documentation of your peer-review values and positionality and then to put your values into practice. You will be asked to reflect on your values, concerns, and questions regarding peer review. Understanding that your values, concerns, and questions will change over time due to your experiences, life and work circumstances, and interests, you may consider regularly revisiting these exercises throughout your professional life. This might be a module that you revisit every year to see how your positionality and practices have changed.
At the end of this module you should be able to:
- Articulate your positionality and values regarding peer review
- Professionally evaluate a work in your field using your positionality and guiding values
Activities and Exercises
Do: Brainstorm and Express Your Values (8:1)
Make a quick list of what you value in peer review. If it is instructive, review the lists you made for Module 2. Now, develop a peer-review values statement that describes your peer-review practice. Your statement should offer your positionality and express your values when it comes to peer review. You might consider these guiding questions:
- What do I most value about the peer-review process?
- Do I have an anti-oppression practice in peer review? How does or will that manifest?
- How will I frame critical feedback in a way that is constructive?
- How will I attempt to eliminate my own biases when I am reviewing others’ works?
This could be as long as you like, but one page should be able to capture your thoughts succinctly.
Do: Conduct a Review and Write a Referee Report (8:2)
Find a work on a pre-print server in your field or a work at an openly peer-reviewed publication like F1000Research. LIS folks could use the LIS Scholarship Archive.
Using the rubric you developed in Activity 7:3, guidelines you developed in Activity 7:4, and your peer-review values statement from Activity 8:1, referee a work of your choosing. If the platform you are using allows you to contribute comments or otherwise publicly evaluate the work, do it! When you are done, take some time to reflect. How did it feel to conduct peer review? What was trickier or easier than you thought it would be? Were you able to easily adhere to your values and the other documents you created?
Lastly, share on social media about your experience using the course hashtag, #PeerReviewPrimer.
Do: Course Evaluation (8:3)
Congratulations! You have completed all 8 modules of this course. Please complete the course evaluation. After you submit your evaluation you will receive a certificate you can print or save to show that you have completed the course.
References
Positionality. (n.d.). Anti-Racist Teaching Collecive. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.arteachingcollective.com/positionality.html