Idea 19: Set up a reviewer network (4 mins)

Every day during September we will post up an idea for you to vote on.  The most popular ideas will become the things that the inaugural Organizing Committee of the Critical Physiotherapy Network focuses on in 2015.  So please make sure you cast your vote at the bottom of each post.

I’ve talked to journal editors in the past who have said that one of hardest jobs is to find good reviewers for articles that have been submitted for publication, and the problem is only made worse when the article is qualitative.  Unless it’s a physiotherapy journal that is familiar with qualitative research, the editor is often completely at a loss to know who to send the article to.  They receive a paper full of words, no hypotheses, and no tables and charts, and they start to hyperventilate.

Some of you will have experienced this from the authors side and been frustrated with the difficulties in getting good reviews, but it’s also not hard to feel for the editors who are often paddling in very uncomfortable waters.  It’s the same with thesis examiners.  Finding good examiners, who will do justice to the student’s work without pushing their own ideological barrow is extremely difficult, and we have all heard horror stories of what can happen when it goes wrong.

So shouldn’t we try to help by pulling together a list of trusted reviewers and examiners and advertise this available to journals and faculties to help take some of the stress away from their work?  Of course, it would have to be done in a way that prevented it becoming a ‘closed shop’: editors would have to trust that we weren’t just offering nice reviews to our mates.  But if we could develop their trust, it could be great professional development for people in the network, and offer the profession a genuinely valued service (not to mention adding years to the life of journal editors!)

Post update: please note that voting closed on 7 October 2014 (results are available here), but please feel free to post your comments in the space below.