Know Thy Reviewers! Really?

Excerpt

As graduate students and young faculty members, all of us are usually told to “know your reviewers.” This usually occurs in a conversation concerned with where to submit a newly written manuscript, or worse, reflections about a manuscript that has been rejected for publication. This advice directly refers to the perception, and too often the reality, that reviewers and editors pass judgment on manuscripts for reasons not totally based on the quality of the manuscript (Hamilton, 1991; Siegelman, 1991). More explicitly, decisions are made based on whether the conceptual/theoretical framework and the findings of the manuscript are aligned with those of the reviewers and editor. Siegelman (1991) categorized his reviewers as assassins, zealots, and mainstreamers. If your co-editors were “assassins” this would translate into the perception that we would never accept a manuscript claiming that nature of science was learned implicitly through students doing laboratory investigations. We can honestly say that this is not, and never will be, the case. There was an article in Science many years ago (and we do not have the reference) in which two researchers produced two manuscripts with the same research question and design. However, the two manuscripts had fictitious data, one in agreement with currently accepted views and the other contrary to current views. These manuscripts were sent to various scientific journals and there was a statistically significant difference in the acceptance rates, with the manuscript aligned with currently held views accepted more frequently. A similar study was completed several years ago in a sociology journal. So, the validity of the advice to “know your reviewers” was empirically tested and verified. Hence, there is some truth to the value of knowing your reviewers. We would prefer that the “knowing” is primarily about the reviewers’ knowledge base, and not about any biases they may harbor. We make every effort possible to insure that manuscripts reviewed for publication in the Journal of Science Teacher Education is based exclusively on the quality of the manuscript and its potential to advance knowledge in the area of science teacher education. …