The Peer Review Process as it Relates to Dental Hygiene Publishing
By Rebecca S. Wilder, RDH, BS, MS
The review process of peer evaluation of research papers builds better articles for readers and strengthens the analytical skills of writers.
When I first started in academics, I had little writing experience. I had joined the dental hygiene faculty at the University of North Carolina on a tenure track, and was expected to begin conducting original research and writing in peer-reviewed journals. One of my first writing endeavors was a literature review paper on faculty calibration. At the time, the former editor of the Journal of Dental Education was a faculty member at my institution. He was teaching short courses on how to write papers for publication, so I decided to take advantage of his experience. During the course, I asked him to critique my paper before I sent it to Educational Directions, a former publication of ADHA.
I will never forget how the paper looked when he returned it to me. It looked as though it had been an editing nightmare! It had been torn apart! After I recuperated from the initial shock, I took the draft and revised it according to the suggestions he made. I sent it to him for review once again. Red ink once again appeared on that second revision. By the time I finished writing that paper, I learned to appreciate a critical review of my work and the process it takes to improve writing skills. To this day, I show that paper to my beginning graduate students so that they will know we all had to start somewhere!
The beginning writer needs the critique of others to grow in his or her work. This process takes an ego adjustment! The primary reason for the critique process is to improve research papers and ensure the accuracy of content and clarity of that piece. These are the primary functions of the peer-review process in a scientific journal. It is our job as reviewers to make certain that research is in the best possible form before it is published. In the long run, the process of critique builds stronger writers and offers the best quality research for our profession.
This is the third article in a series describing the process of conducting research and getting it published. The first article shared how research is conducted, the dental hygienist’s responsibility to read new research and what types of research can be found in the pages of the profession’s top publications. The second article reviewed the elements of a research article and how a dental hygienist may evaluate this material. This article will discuss how research articles get published so that dental hygienists may understand the process and the importance of peer review.
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