The Journal of School Nursing
2022, Vol. 38(1) 4
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/10598405211061777
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Last year was a productive year for scientific authors. During the pandemic, there was a stark increase in submissions to all scientific journals, including nursing and medicine journals (Squazzoni et al., 2021; Palayew et al., 2020). The Journal of School Nursing experienced a 25% increase in submissions from 2019 to 2020, and another 10% increase in 2021.
As editor, I conduct an initial inspection of the manuscript to determine if it meets the standards of the journal. I read the abstract and scan the document. Every manuscript is submitted to a software program to detect plagiarism. The software evaluates the originality of the document and generates a report that identifies unacceptable levels of text that have appeared in other published works. I check to make sure the authors are anonymous to the reviewers and that the authors did not inadvertently reveal their identities in the text, title page or in the supplementary tables and figures. The reference list is checked for references from predatory journals. Finally, I determine if there was an Institutional Review Board approval to that indicates the study is ethical and did not violate human subjects’ protections. Once the manuscript passes muster, it is sent out for peer review.
For each manuscript submitted, two or three people knowledgeable about an aspect of the paper weigh in on its scientific and clinical soundness, its clarity, and whether the work adds a contribution to what is already known. The reviewers for The Journal of School Nursing include child heath researchers, clinical scholars, school nurse leaders, librarians, teachers, principals and occasionally parents. Statisticians and qualitative research experts are invited to review manuscripts to assess the methodology and analysis employed by the authors. Each year the February issue of the journal is reserved for literature reviews. Health sciences librarians are always included on those review panels to validate the rigor of the search strategies. It is essential that evidence-based practice manuscripts be reviewed by an expert in the topic, but also by a school nurse who can judge the manuscript’s practicality and application to the typical school environment.
With the steep increase in submissions over the pandemic, there has been an accompanying increase in the invitations to The Journal of School Nursing peer reviewers to critique for manuscripts. The December 2021 issue recognized the 349 individuals who reviewed between September 2020-September 2021. Forty-four, or 12% of the reviewers provided feedback on three or more manuscripts.
Reviewers do benefit from conducting peer reviews (Kerig, 2021). Reviewers improve their own writing and learn from the constructive guidance offered by their fellow reviewers. Conducting peer reviews is expected in academia and leads to professional opportunities by preparing participants for roles on editorial boards and panels (Kerig, 2021). However, even when the benefits of participating in peer review are factored in, it is a substantial and generous investment of time and expertise.
The professional service provided by The Journal of School Nursing’s peer reviewers directly influences the quality of manuscripts that are published in the journal. Reviewers serve not only the journal and school nursing, but they contribute to the quality of the science and evidence for practice. I am profoundly grateful for the commitment and generosity of the reviewers who embrace this service to their profession and accept invitations to review for The Journal of School Nursing.
Martha Dewey Bergren, PhD, RN, NCSN, PHNA-BC, FNASN, FASHA, FAAN Editor, The Journal of School Nursing
Martha Dewey Bergren https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8655-5418
Kerig, P. K. (2021). Why participate in peer review? Journal of Traumatic Stress, 34(1), 5–8. https://doi-org.proxy.cc.uic.edu/10.1002/jts.22647 https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22647
Palayew, A., Norgaard, O., Safreed-Harmon, K., Andersen, T.H., Neimann, L.N., & Lazarus, J. V. (2020). Pandemic publishing poses a new COVID-19 challenge. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(7), 666–669. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0911-0
Squazzoni, F., & Bravo, G., Grimaldo, F., García-Costa, D., Farjam, M, Mehmani, B. (2021). Gender gap in journal submissions and peer review during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A study on 2329 Elsevier journals. PLoS ONE, 16(10), e0257919. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257919n
