I have had lots of rich conversations with colleagues about our scholarly systems and practices, including peer-review. Kumashiro et al’s Thinking Collaboratively about the Peer-Review Process for Journal-Article Publication greatly influenced my thinking and practice in this area. Conversations around peer-review can be expansive, and some of the ones I’ve had over the years explore how to prepare early career colleagues to give “good” feedback. The last time I taught a doctoral research seminar (which I am teaching again in the Fall), I involved my students in an authentic peer-review experience, which then led to a co-authored paper on the experience of peer review. We published this paper in Postdigital Science and Education, and I’m including the abstract and link to the full paper below.

While academic peer review is the cornerstone of scholarly publishing, it presents significant challenges for early-career researchers. This collective paper describes an authentic peer review experience within a doctoral seminar. In collaboration with Postdigital Science and Education, students acted as peer reviewers for manuscripts under consideration, wrote individual reflections on the process, and engaged in group discussions to analyze their experiences. Students grappled with questions of expertise, the challenge of providing constructive criticism, the ‘hidden curriculum’ of academic publishing, and the need for clearer reviewer guidelines. These insights are then discussed and expanded by seasoned scholars in the field, with the goal of a transparent and iterative dialogue that strengthens scholarly communities.

Veletsianos, G., Arabadzhy, G., Athilat, V., Bartucz, J., Dogra, S., Fredrickson, N. R., Goeke, M., Jeon, S., Urena, M., Jandrić, P., Green, B. J., & Jackson, L. (in press). Postdigital peer review: A vulnerable space between freedom and responsibility. Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-025-00604-6