Peer review is at the heart of the scientific method. While it’s by no means a perfect system, it is still the best system of scientific quality control that we have. Many graduate programs don’t explicitly teach courses on how to review papers. Instead, a young scientist may learn how to review a paper under the guidance of his or her mentor, How to become good at peer review: A guide for young scientists is a post to put together a set of guidelines for young scientists.
Ethical considerations
- Expertise
- Timeliness
- Take it seriously
- Avoid bias
- Don’t be intimidated
- Review anonymously?
- Respect confidentiality
How to review critically, but fairly
- Things to watch out for The Introduction/Background
- An approach to critically evaluating the Approach/Methods portion of a manuscript
- Interpreting the research Results/Interpretation/Discussion
- Some final considerations