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Top Reasons for Serving as a Peer Reviewer for JNP

2023; Elsevier BV; Volume: 19; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.nurpra.2023.104832

1878-058X

Leslie L. Davis,

Disaster Response and Management

Years ago, I was a big fan of a regular segment on The Late Show with David Letterman titled, “The Top Ten List.” Each night Letterman would count down (in reverse order) the top 10 items that revolved around a particular theme, culminating with the top item. With this in mind I submit to JNP readers the top 7 reasons for serving as a peer reviewer for JNP, starting with reason #7. Notably, I was unable to identify 10 reasons, so I welcome correspondence from readers to add to my list! #7: Serving as a peer reviewer helps you become a better writer. A wise mentor once told me that the best way to become a good writer is to read good writing. With that in mind, serving as a regular reviewer for JNP provides you with examples of how to use logic to build an argument to clearly communicate the premise of your work and come to a sound conclusion to inform implications for clinical practice. #6: Serving as a peer reviewer helps you become a better reviewer. Simply put, the more you review, the better reviewer you become. If you are new to serving as a reviewer, the best way to increase your efficiency in reviewing and mastering the skill of peer review is to jump in. Follow the instructions and submit your review. Provide positive constructive feedback to help make the paper better. Then, once you submit your review, when the decision from the editor is sent to you as a blinded reviewer, pay close attention to how your review compares with the other reviewers’ evaluation of the same paper. Also take note if the editor emphasized any of your suggestions to the author(s) or if the editor softened some of the comments. Experience over time, combined with paying attention to how your reviews compare with other reviewers, will position you to be a top reviewer. Often journals, including JNP, name top reviewers of the year. You too may be honored as a top reviewer! #5: Serving as a peer reviewer provides evidence of scholarly service. Often, a criterion for annual performance evaluation or promotion includes indicating which service efforts you have participated in during the evaluation period. Serving as a reviewer for a peer reviewed journal, such as JNP, is an excellent way to meet this criterion. Reviewers can access the number of manuscripts you have reviewed during the time period, including which manuscripts were original research, evidence-based practice, or quality improvement projects, for example. These metrics provide details of your service to demonstrate the impact you have made as a peer reviewer. Building on #6, if you earn top reviewer recognition, this can also be noted as an honor in your resume or promotion packet. #4: Serving as a peer reviewer provides a vehicle for staying up-to-date in your practice area. Part of the process to volunteer to serve as a peer reviewer involves identifying your areas of expertise. In doing so, the journal editor(s) have a system for selecting you as a reviewer for papers that are in your area of practice. Thus, reviewers are invited to review particular papers that align with their expertise. I have used this strategy for several of the journals that I review for as a mechanism for staying up-to-date on particular topics and gaining exposure to various methodologies. On occasion, the background/introduction or the methods sections of a paper provide references that I was not aware of, providing me with tools for future use in my own work. In addition, reviewers have access to similar papers to obtain more on the topic if desired. #3: Serving as a peer reviewer helps give back to the journal after publishing there. Once you publish in a journal, it is nice to give back to the community that volunteered to review your paper and provide constructive feedback to polish the final published version. In fact, authors of recently published papers may note that they receive an invitation to review papers for JNP without having completed an application to review. This streamlines the process to maintain engagement with the JNP community. #2: Serving as a peer reviewer helps ensure integrity behind what the journal publishes. Part of the peer review process, beyond providing constructive feedback to help polish the papers before dissemination, is to implement a rigorous system to uphold the integrity of the work. For example, if there are fatal flaws in a project or questions about ethical breeches (eg, plagiarism, fraudulent activities, or duplication), it is important to discover those before publication. As editors, we count on peer reviewers to help with this process. And the #1 reason for serving as a peer reviewer, (insert drum roll), is that it helps you give back to the profession. As a nurse practitioner and nurse scientist, I remain committed to helping build disciplinary knowledge for the profession. I hope you, as JNP readers, agree. By providing substantive feedback for manuscripts, beyond editorial/grammar edits, reviewers help shape the knowledge produced. Because the world is ever changing, including how we define health holistically, disciplinary knowledge is not static in time. Peer reviewers from diverse backgrounds are needed to provide various perspectives to break down implicit biases and inform the future of the profession. Thus, beyond the immediate needs of the journal, the future of the discipline and profession is dependent on a pipeline of reviewers that represent our global community. In summary, benefits to serving as a peer reviewer for JNP include developing yourself as a writer, reviewer, and clinician; building a track record of service activities and potentially external recognition as a top reviewer; and providing a mechanism to give back to the journal community, to the integrity of the process of dissemination, and to the profession at large. Hopefully, I have helped JNP readers who already review for our journal redouble their efforts to accept invitations (and complete their reviews) in a timely manner (smile!). In addition, for those readers who are contemplating volunteering to serve as a peer reviewer, we need you! To learn more about our process, duties of a peer reviewer and how to apply for serving as a peer reviewer go to https://beta.elsevier.com/reviewer/role?trial=true. One of the resources provided is a link to a certified peer review course offered by The Elsevier Research Academy. The free self-paced online course is available at https://researcheracademy.elsevier.com/navigating-peer-review/certified-peer-reviewer-course. If you are interested in serving as a reviewer for JNP, please get in touch with the editor-in-chief at the email on the journal home page (www.npjournal.org) with a letter of interest and a copy of your resume or CV.