Cross-posted from Nature Middle East’s House of Wisdom blog
During the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 (ESOF 2012) which opened in Dublin yesterday, Alaa Ibrahim, an astrophysicist from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, gave his advice to young researchers starting their research career on how to handle the peer reviewing process. Here is a summary of his tips:
- Understand that the peer reviewing process is an essential part of proper science. It gives credibility to your work and acts as an initial endorsement of your work by the science community.
- Start early. You now have an option to be involved in undergraduate research during graduate school. This is useful to give you a feel for the peer review process and to understand and appreciate how it works.
- Be part of the research community in your particular discipline. Go to meetings and conferences and get engaged with the latest research taking place. Read papers and see how they are written to get a feel for the quality of published, peer-reviewed work.
- Get to know the leading researchers in your field. These are likely to be your editors and reviewers. They are usually experts so don’t be shy to ask them for their advice and even mentorship when you are still starting your research career.
- Present your research results at meetings and solicit feedback from senior researchers and peers before you go for publishing. Their advice could help improve your work to make it publishable before you submit (and possibly get refused)
- Once you have a good network of contacts among senior researchers in your field, circulate your paper among them for feedback and input before submitting your manuscript for review.
For three more top tips and other peer-review advice for early-career scientists, continue reading on the House of Wisdom blog.
