Situation
Bethany Tyce has been asked to review a piece for a journal. She is an advanced graduate student who has actually published in the journal previously. However, she has not written reviews before and would like some guidance. She asks Professor Northup, her co-author on the published piece, for some assistance. He suggests two things. First, Professor Northup maintains a file of reviews he has done in the past. He offers to have Bethany look through those reviews to get a sense of how journal reviews are written. Second, because he knows that Bethany has a great deal of knowledge in the area of a piece he has been asked to review, he suggests that they both take a look the manuscript he has received and that they, essentially, do a co-review.
Questions
- How good and appropriate are Professor Northup’s suggestions?
- What other mechanisms can and have been used to socialize graduate students to the review process?
Discussion
It is standard practice for Professors to keep reviews filed, particularly in the short run in case they receive a revised manuscript from the same journal, or, are asked to review the piece by a journal to which it is subsequently submitted. (At this point, many review sheets specifically ask reviewers whether or not they have reviewed this piece previously for other journals.) At minimum, if Professor Northup allows Bethany to look at his drawer of reviews, he must inform her of the confidentiality of those reviews and require her to maintain confidentiality. Some editors believe that sharing submitted manuscripts with others, for whatever reason, violates the implicit agreement of confidentiality with authors. Professor Northup should call the editor of the journal and ask whether he can proceed with his second idea. The journal editor has the right to deny this request. However, institutions which house journals often use advanced graduate students as interns. This common practice provides a solid socialization experience and works under confidentiality agreements made explicit to the interns. In some cases, individuals have taught professional socialization courses in which manuscripts and reviews are read by the students. If the manuscript belongs to the teacher, then he/she should contact the journal editor on their position regarding the use of reviews for this purpose. If the manuscripts are ones that the teacher has reviewed, it requires that they receive permission from the editor and the author to use their work in this context.
