I have submitted a paper to a physics journal. Two referees reviewed it, and I got their reports.
My questions are the following: Does each referee see another one's report? If yes, at which stage - response to the referees, or even before?
-
2Is this for an APS journal? (Seems likely but not guaranteed based on your previous questions.)– AnyonCommented Nov 25 at 1:16
-
@Anyon : yes, it is.– John TaylorCommented Nov 25 at 7:00
-
I don’t think this makes sense without actually naming a specific journal. Even "physics" is huge with wildly different branches and customs.– MisterMiyagiCommented Nov 25 at 14:42
-
1I don't know of a journal that would send the other referees reports before that referee has submitted their own. It seems like it would be a potential source of referee bias, because other referees reviews are going to influence your own, especially if you're early career and think your other referees are more knowledgeable than you.– CrazymoominCommented Nov 26 at 21:26
-
1@Crazymoomin I have a vague recollection of a question where OP had noticed that the online system (probably for a conference?) gave them access to other reports before submitting their own, but I cannot find it now.– AnyonCommented Nov 27 at 19:07
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
As stated by @Buzz in a comment,
In physics, referees almost always get to see all the reports.
In the case of the Physical Review family of journals published by American Physical Society (APS), my experience is that this usually happens when authors have submitted a response or when the editor considers the process in the current journal finished (e.g., after enough referees recommend rejection or transfer to a specialized journal instead of publication in Physical Review Letters). If a given referee is invited to review the paper again, the invitation email can contain phrases such as
We append copies of reports from you and the other referee on the previous version of the manuscript and of the author's response. Is the response of the authors to all the previous recommendations satisfactory?
Conversely, if a reviewer isn't invited to the second round, the previous reports may be sent to a new referee. If the reviews and would-be responses are "trivial" in some sense (e.g., all reviewers recommend acceptance in the second round) one might receive just the decision summary instead of the reports. I've also on occasion been asked to break the tie between reviewers that had already submitted reports. In those cases, the previous referee reports were included in the invitation.
-
Also for Nature the other reports are visible to all refs after the authors response. Commented Nov 26 at 6:16
It depends on the journal. Some journals send editor decisions, along with all referee reports, to all reviewers. Most don't.
Generally, if authors write their reply to reviewers, they copy-past most of the reviews into a document so they can address individual points. Reviewers get to see this document in the second round, and at that point they see what others reviewers wrote (or at least the part that was copy-pasted).
answered Nov 25 at 0:43
-
10I suspect the practice of "most" journals varies by field. In physics, referees almost always get to see all the reports.– BuzzCommented Nov 25 at 2:16
-
1Yes, I usually see my co-referee's reports at the same time the authors do. How closely I read it varies, mostly on paper quality. Commented Nov 25 at 14:27
-
2I cannot second the "Generally, …" part at all. I’m used to systems that provide separate responses to each reviewer, for example. Heck, even the idea that there is a second round isn’t a universal standard in the reviews I was involved in from either side. Commented Nov 25 at 14:47
-
1Just to echo others, int he ~10 different journals I reviewed in my career, never have I not seen other reviewers report always got bcc'd (or forwarded) the email sent to the authors. Commented Nov 26 at 10:57
This varies by journal (or more likely, editorial management system). The full spectrum is possible, from "they never see each other's reviews", to "you can see the other reviews once the paper is accepted, to "you can see the other reviews once you submit your review". Some EMSes require the authors to respond to each reviewer separately, in which case the reviewers might not have access to the other reviews at all. Other EMSes don't, and the authors simply upload a "response to reviewers" file, whereupon the reviewers can see what other reviewers said. (But unless the authors copy/pasted the reviewer's comments, they might still be in the dark over the exact words of the other reviews.)
One constant is that referees don't usually see other reviews before they submit their review, since that can bias the review. Therefore, the earliest a reviewer might see other reviews is after they submit their review.
