[AISWorld] The review process

[Thomas Stafford (tstaffor)]

One more Editor chiming in on the dialogue, here.

I am hearing emblematic terms characterizing what we like and dislike about the review process at our journals. "Mentoring," is mentioned as the desirable stance of reviewers, and "Slapping Leather" characterizing the seeming rejection bias some younger or less experienced reviewers might seem to have.

This is all apt; good reviews seek to develop the manuscript in a collegial way, if not for the journal at hand, then for some other suggested venue as an alternate target. Bad reviews might seem to presume guilt until proof of innocence is found, perhaps in some stereotypical exhibition of what might be considered rigor.

Rigor is not a bad thing, unless applied indiscriminately. I tend to feel that rigorous reviews are highly objective and extremely detailed. This does not need to mean picky, as opposed to thorough. We don't need to be asking for formative measures or critiquing potential method bias just to be stylish; reasoned reviews are objective, they are fair, they are polite - even if rejection is the ultimate recommendation.

I, for one, have always favored Carol Saunders' "Diamond Cutter" rubric. It's hard to craft a good manuscript, and harder yet to guide it second hand as a reviewer. If we think of every seemingly ugly pebble of a manuscript as a potentially shiny diamond, given the requisite work, we might be inclined to review in ways that diverge from the emerging norm of the rejection bias.

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Thomas F. Stafford, Ph.D.
Professor of MIS
Member, Institutional Review Board
University of Memphis
Memphis, TN 38152

http://www.memphis.edu/mis/about.php

On Oct 17, 2013, at 8:34 AM, "aisworld-request at lists.aisnet.org<mailto:aisworld-request at lists.aisnet.org>" <aisworld-request at lists.aisnet.org<mailto:aisworld-request at lists.aisnet.org>> wrote:

[AISWorld] On quality of journals and quality of reviews
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