What are you sayingggg?
My hardest task in my internship this week? I’ve got to say that peer reviewing comes in first by a long way. And the hardest part about peer review? Trying to actually understand someone’s study so that you can give them useful feedback.
Peer review is a key part of the process of scientific research publication. It can be so beneficial to get the perspective of those who work around you in order to get the most out of your study. However, for it to be beneficial, the reviewer needs to give useful feedback. This means clear, specific and balanced feedback. Sound simple? Yes, well, it can be easy to pick good from bad feedback, but to DO it is something else. It requires critical thinking about the study. Which requires you to understand the study as well.
We are all first-time research proposal writers and so understanding the study in question can be challenging. Our writing styles are not the most refined, which makes explanations difficult to convey to the reader at times. On top of this is the fact that we are not practiced at reading proposals either and are often not familiar with the topic areas, style and statistical analyses of others as a result, having only focused on our own…
So what did this mean? Well, for me it meant giving feedback took a lot more time than expected — over an hour to read through each proposal ONCE! (That was before rereading and then giving additional overall feedback). Doing this 3 times therefore took a liiiittle bit of time.
The UPside?
Patience is key: don’t expect to understand someone’s study the first time — relax, take a breath and give yourself time to understand.
You gain and understanding of others in doing so too: you put yourself in the shoes of others and try to understand their way of phrasing in order to make sense of a sentence that you wouldn’t write yourself. It opens you up to new ideas and new perspectives too.
Balance your time, that’s a good idea: it has helped me remember to set mini time goals in order to stay on track.
AND I am very pleased that I did not leave it until the last minute. (Good job Jess.)
So hey, it might be a bit of a stressful process, but it’s a worthwhile insight into positive understanding and communication with others, giving you perspective on your own work.
Until next time,
Jess
