Peerspectives: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:00, 28 August 2025

About this Wiki
This Wiki was designed and intended to provide a template for educators to integrate Peerspectives into their own academic program. In addition to details regarding the purpose, learning objectives, and structure of the course, we also provide the following: Modifiable lecture slides Email templates used to run the course Suggestions for adapting the course to other disciplines or career stages Lessons learned from previous iterations of the course, tested via trial-and-error Please use the left side panel for navigation, in addition to the search bar at the top of this page.

Overview

What is Peerspectives?

Peerspectives is a highly interactive and engaging course that provides researchers with modern training and insights into the structure, purpose, and conduct of the scholarly peer review and editing processes at scientific journals.

How did Peerspectives start?

Peerspectives was originally conceptualized as a semester-long course that offered as an elective course in the structured PhD program in Health Data Sciences at the Charité. Soon after, we expanded our content to suit a wider audience of early career biomedical scientists.

This course can be hosted entirely online and was created with flexibility in mind, making it adaptable to various resource levels, time frames, career stages, and scientific disciplines.

Why should you run Peerspectives?

Scientific journals publish scholarly articles and provide an important platform for transparent presentation, exchange, and discussion of scientific findings and developments. Peer review plays a fundamental role in ensuring integrity and quality in scientific processes. While the scientific peer review process is not without flaws, learning how to conduct high-quality peer review is an invaluable skill for early career researchers (ECRs). In sharp contrast to the enormous emphasis on scientific publications in cumulative publication-based dissertations, peer review training is rarely, if ever, included in graduate training curricula. Peerspectives seeks to address this training gap.

Peerspectives introduces participants to the modern scientific publishing landscape and the actors within this system. The course allows participants to refine their skills in drafting peer review reports and learn about transparency, reproducibility, and the use of modern methods. Additionally, it simultaneously serves to increase awareness of critical systemic issues including biases, favoritism, and scientific misconduct.

Peerspectives strives to equip early-stage researchers with vital career-related skills and provide them with the chance to reflect on quality control and the role of the professional publishing business in science.

Target audience

Peerspectives originated as a training course for doctoral students in the domains of biomedical sciences and population health with prior epidemiology or biostatistics training. Over time, the course expanded to welcome other early career researchers, such as advanced master’s students, and early-stage postdocs.

The course is flexible and can be adapted to different career stages and scientific disciplines. However, for successful implementation, it is important to customize the content and structure to fit the specific needs of the participants. A generic, one-size-fits-all approach may be impractical and could affect the course’s overall quality.

Course objectives

Explain the role of scientific journals, editors, and peer reviewers as parts of the scientific process in the field of biomedical sciences
Promote clear communication and efficiency in the peer review process
Stimulate critical thinking and constructive, scientific critique
Encourage transparency and adherence to ethical and methodological guidelines
Introduce and explore concepts around open science, open-access publishing, and open peer review
Participants will develop an understanding of what peer reviewers and editors are looking for in scientific writing and improve the quality of participants’ future submission

Course Structure

Our complete semester-long hybrid approach to training combines a series of interactive lectures with reflection assignments to promote fruitful group discussions. Once the lecture series has concluded, the course moves onto a series of peer review workshops. During these workshops, the participants – under the guidance of an experienced editorial mentor – collaborate in small groups to peer review “live” manuscripts that are currently under consideration at a partnering scientific journal. The Peerspectives approach uniquely allows participants to engage in collaborative peer review in a mentored environment.

Component 1: Lectures

Peerspectives opens with a series of interactive lectures aimed at equipping participants with essential knowledge of editorial processes and the development of scientific peer review. The lecture component of the course spans over four sessions, with each lecture lasting three hours. However, the number of sessions, their duration, and the topics covered can be modified to align with the target audience, lecturer availability, and scheduling needs.

Take-home assignments

Between lectures, participants complete small exercises designed to reinforce concepts from the previous session and engage in preparatory brainstorming for the next lecture’s topics. These take-home assignments are revisited in the following lecture and serve as a foundation for group discussions.

Component 2: Workshops

The second component of Peerspectives consists of workshops, during which participants collaboratively draft and finalize a peer review report under the supervision of a mentor with peer review and (ideally) editorial experience. Workshops are designed to be participant-led, with the role of workshop leader rotating between participants each week. While the mentor provides guidance and can steer the discussion if needed, participants hold the responsibility for reading the manuscript and drafting a review prior to the workshop. Participants are expected to shape the peer review (1) in line with their individual scientific expertise, and (2) to apply the peer review knowledge developed in the lectures.

Component 3: Reflection

To maximise learning outcomes, we recommend some kind of reflection activity. This can be in the form of a self-assessment of skills, de-briefing with the mentor after the last workshop, or listening in to an editorial meeting or requesting a meeting with the handling editor to inquire about the submitted peer review reports.

Component 4: Pre- and Post-Course Assignments

These assignments serve to gauge the peer review experience and knowledge of participants before and after formal instruction.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
-!'''<big>About this Wiki</big>'''
+!<big>About this Wiki</big>
 |-
-|This page was designed to provide a template for educators to integrate Peerspectives into their own academic program. In addition to details regarding the purpose, learning objectives, and structure of the course, we also provide the following:
+|This Wiki was designed and intended to provide a template for educators to integrate Peerspectives into their own academic program. In addition to details regarding the purpose, learning objectives, and structure of the course, we also provide the following:
 * Modifiable lecture slides
 *Email templates used to run the course
-*Adaptation suggestions
+*Suggestions for adapting the course to other disciplines or career stages
-*Lessons learned...
+*Lessons learned from previous iterations of the course, tested via trial-and-error
+Please use the left side panel for navigation, in addition to the search bar at the top of this page.
 |}
 [[File:Peerspectives logo.png|alt=Logo for the Peerspectives peer-review training initiative|center|300x300px]]
-==Overview==
+==<big>Overview</big>==
-'''<big>What is Peerspectives?</big>'''
+=== What is Peerspectives? ===
+Peerspectives is a highly interactive and engaging '''course''' that provides researchers with modern training and insights into the '''structure, purpose, and conduct of the scholarly peer review and editing processes at scientific journals.'''
-Peerspectives is a highly interactive and engaging '''course''' that was designed to provide researchers with modern training and insights into the '''structure, purpose, and conduct of the peer-review and editing processes in scientific journals'''.
+=== How did Peerspectives start? ===
+Peerspectives was originally conceptualized as a semester-long course that offered as an elective course in the structured PhD program in Health Data Sciences at the Charité. Soon after, we expanded our content to suit a wider audience of early career biomedical scientists.
-Scientific peer review is a crucial pillar of scientific quality control and academic publishing; yet, most scientists never receive formal training on its purpose or conduct.
+This course can be hosted entirely online and was created with flexibility in mind, making it adaptable to various resource levels, time frames, career stages, and scientific disciplines.
-'''<big>Structure of the Peerspectives course</big>'''
+=== Why should you run Peerspectives? ===
+Scientific journals publish scholarly articles and provide an important platform for transparent presentation, exchange, and discussion of scientific findings and developments. Peer review plays a fundamental role in ensuring integrity and quality in scientific processes. While the scientific peer review process is not without flaws, learning how to conduct high-quality peer review is an invaluable skill for early career researchers (ECRs). In sharp contrast to the enormous emphasis on scientific publications in cumulative publication-based dissertations, peer review training is rarely, if ever, included in graduate training curricula. '''Peerspectives seeks to address this training gap.'''
-Peerspectives was designed to be a semester-long course developed for integration into graduate biomedical sciences curricula. This course can be hosted entirely online and was designed with flexibility in mind, making it adaptable to various resource levels, time frames, and scientific disciplines.
+Peerspectives introduces participants to the modern scientific publishing landscape and the actors within this system. The course allows participants to refine their skills in drafting peer review reports and learn about transparency, reproducibility, and the use of modern methods. Additionally, it simultaneously serves to increase awareness of critical systemic issues including biases, favoritism, and scientific misconduct.
-=== '''Why should you run Peerspectives?''' ===
+Peerspectives strives to equip early-stage researchers with vital career-related skills and provide them with the chance to reflect on quality control and the role of the professional publishing business in science.
-Scientific journals publish scholarly articles and provide an important platform for transparent presentation, exchange, and discussion of scientific findings and developments. Peer review plays a fundamental role in ensuring integrity and quality in scientific processes.
-Despite a lack of formal training in peer review, scientists are expected to contribute to,  Peerspectives is an initiative that addresses this training gap.
+=== Target audience ===
+Peerspectives originated as a training course for doctoral students in the domains of biomedical sciences and population health with prior epidemiology or biostatistics training. Over time, the course expanded to welcome other early career researchers, such as advanced master’s students, and early-stage postdocs.
-While the scientific peer review process is not without flaws, learning how to conduct high-quality peer review is an invaluable skill for early career researchers (ECRs). In sharp contrast to the enormous (albeit controversial) emphasis on scientific publications in cumulative publication-based dissertations, university incentive structures and in career trajectories in academia, peer review training opportunities are rarely, if ever, including in graduate training curricula. This motivation drove us to create the Peerspectives peer review training program for PhD students and other ECRs in the biomedical sciences. Peerspectives introduces participants to the modern scientific publishing landscape and the actors within this system. The course allows students to refine their skills in drafting peer review reports and learn about transparency, reproducibility, and the use of modern methods. Additionally, it simultaneously serves to increase awareness of critical systemic issues including biases, favoritism, and scientific misconduct
+The course is '''flexible''' and can be adapted to different career stages and scientific disciplines. However, for successful implementation, '''it is important to customize the content and structure to fit the specific needs of the participants'''. A generic, one-size-fits-all approach may be impractical and could affect the course’s overall quality.
-Peerspectives strives to equip early-stage researchers with vital career-related skills and provide them with the chance to reflect on quality control and the role of the professional publishing business in science.
+=== Course objectives ===
-== Target Audience==
+* Explain the role of scientific journals, editors, and peer reviewers as parts of the scientific process in the field of biomedical sciences
-Peerspectives originated as a training course for doctoral students in the domains of (bio)medical sciences and population health with prior epidemiology or biostatistics training. Over time, the course expanded to welcome other early career researchers, such as advanced master’s students and early-stage postdocs, who have also been very successful and valuable contributors to the course.
+* Promote clear communication and efficiency in the peer review process
+* Stimulate critical thinking and constructive, scientific critique
+* Encourage transparency and adherence to ethical and methodological guidelines
+* Introduce and explore concepts around open science, open-access publishing, and open peer review
+* Participants will develop an understanding of what peer reviewers and editors are looking for in scientific writing and improve the quality of participants’ future submission
+==<big>Course Structure</big>==
+Our complete semester-long hybrid approach to training combines a series of interactive lectures with reflection assignments to promote fruitful group discussions. Once the lecture series has concluded, the course moves onto a series of peer review workshops.  During these workshops, the participants – under the guidance of an experienced editorial mentor –  collaborate in small groups to peer review “live” manuscripts that are currently under consideration at a partnering scientific journal. The Peerspectives approach uniquely allows participants to engage in collaborative peer review in a mentored environment.
+=== Component 1: [[Lectures]] ===
+Peerspectives opens with a series of interactive lectures aimed at equipping participants with essential knowledge of editorial processes and the development of scientific peer review. The lecture component of the course spans over four sessions, with each lecture lasting three hours. However, the number of sessions, their duration, and the topics covered can be modified to align with the target audience, lecturer availability, and scheduling needs.
-The course can be readily adapted to other scientific disciplines or career stages. However, when tailoring it for a new context, it is essential to align the content and structure with the specific needs of the target audience.
+==== Take-home assignments ====
+Between lectures, participants complete small exercises designed to reinforce concepts from the previous session and engage in preparatory brainstorming for the next lecture’s topics. These take-home assignments are revisited in the following lecture and serve as a foundation for group discussions.
-'''Adapting the course to other scientific disciplines'''
+===Component 2: [[Workshops]]===
+The second component of Peerspectives consists of workshops, during which participants collaboratively draft and finalize a peer review report under the supervision of a mentor with peer review and (ideally) editorial experience. Workshops are designed to be participant-led, with the role of workshop leader rotating between participants each week. While the mentor provides guidance and can steer the discussion if needed, participants hold the responsibility for reading the manuscript and drafting a review prior to the workshop.  Participants are expected to shape the peer review (1) in line with their individual scientific expertise, and (2) to apply the peer review knowledge developed in the lectures.
-'''Adapting the course to other career stages'''
+=== Component 3: Reflection ===
+To maximise learning outcomes, we recommend some kind of reflection activity. This can be in the form of a self-assessment of skills, de-briefing with the mentor after the last workshop, or listening in to an editorial meeting or requesting a meeting with the handling editor to inquire about the submitted peer review reports.
-Must tailor the course to a discipline. One-size fits all solutions would be difficult to work with and would make the quality of the course suffer
+===Component 4: [[Pre- and Post-Course Assignments]]===
-==Learning Outcomes of the Course==
+These assignments serve to gauge the peer review experience and knowledge of participants before and after formal instruction.
-*Explain the role of scientific journals, editors, and peer reviewers as parts of the scientific process in biomedical fields
-*Promote clear communication and efficiency in the review process
-*Stimulate critical thinking and constructive, scientific critique
-*Encourage transparency and adherence to ethical and methodological guidelines
-*Introduce and explore open-access, open science, and open review concepts
-* Develop an understanding of what reviewers and editors are looking for in scientific writing and improve the quality of participants’ future submission
-==Course Structure==
-Our semester-long hybrid approach to training combines a series of interactive lectures with reflection assignments to promote fruitful group discussions followed by hands-on workshops, in which students work together in small groups to review “live” manuscripts from a partnering scientific journal under the guidance of an experienced mentor with editing experience. Unlike existing peer review training workshops, our approach integrates participants into collaborative peer review in a mentored environment.
-===Pre-Course Assignment (optional)===*good exercise for people to realize what they dont know, see growth
-===[[Lectures]]===
-The course begins with 4, three-hour long lectures
-Homework assignments + rationale
-*4x à 3 hours (with breaks)
-===[[Workshops]]===
-Narrative, rationale
-*4x à 3 hours (with breaks)
-*4 participants per EM
-*online
-*student-led
-*other students contribute in the preparation
-*mentor provides guidance while students drive the discussion
-*cleanish report at the end
-*EM submits to the journal
-===Post-Course Assignment (optional)===
 __NOTOC__
+__NOINDEX__