Knowledge and motivations of training in peer review: An international cross-sectional survey

Peer review is the primary method used for quality control in scientific publishing, and it usually provides constructive feedback to authors and offers recommendations to journal editors. Despite its widespread use, peer review lacks standardization and guidelines. Only some publishers offer guidelines and training for reviewers, and different scholarly publishers have different requirements. This paper summarizes the findings of a cross-sectional online survey conducted on 2000 corresponding authors from 100 randomly selected medical journals. A total of 186 participants completed the survey; most of them agreed strongly–that peer reviewers should receive formal training in peer review prior to acting as a peer reviewer. In total, 55 of 80 participants indicated that the journal they were affiliated with did not explicitly require peer review training for their reviewers. Eight indicated that it was required and provided by the journal internally, while two indicated that it was required but externally delivered. The most common format of training required was either an online course and/or lecture.

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Recommended on behalf of EASE by Silvia Maina, Italy