TheJAMIAStudent Editorial Board: Peer Review Education in Biomedical Informatics

Peer review is defined as “an evaluation by experts of the quality and pertinence of research or research proposals of other experts in the same field.”1 Peer review is a key component of the process by which an academic journal retains its quality and scientific rigor. Peer review serves three main purposes: providing a quasi-objective metric for the quality of journal submissions, serving as a mechanism to improve the quality of the content, and providing a mechanism for informing and educating journal contributors (authors). Reviewers help editors to determine whether a manuscript is worthy of publication in the specific journal. Not only do reviewers give their opinion of the merits of the manuscript on a “publishability” scale, they explain to the Editorial Office why they ranked the submission as they did and provide suggestions for how to improve the manuscript to both editors and authors. This process allows a discipline to maintain and improve the quality of its published papers. This process secondarily affects what research is conducted, what methodologies are employed, and what messages are disseminated to professional and lay audiences and, to some extent, rightly or wrongly, provides a mechanism to assist in evaluating the work of the authors who submit publications.Peer review is at first glance a thankless job for the anonymous reviewer. It takes time and effort to do well, for which the primary reward is the contribution the reviewer makes to the academic and professional communities served by the journal. However, one gains skill and knowledge from participating in the peer-review process. Reviewers learn effective methods for organizing and presenting scientific content from the authors who submit manuscripts. They also learn from the scientific ideas in the manuscripts they review (even though they cannot act on them or discuss them with others until …