I will share what I even have learnt concerning the academic peer review process through a private journey from a hesitant reviewer to an Associate Editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (Impact Factor 4.6).
While most traditional science and engineering publications require prior publication experience and academic credentials to function reviewers, machine learning and data science may be an exception. A big driver of the widespread adoption and use of information science has been open-source projects and repositories. Many influential contributors to open-source data science are usually not all the time published researchers but possess deep knowledge of the sector through practice and experimentation. Moreover, formal academic degrees in machine learning have only existed for a couple of years, and lots of current researchers come from diverse backgrounds. I, for instance, have a background in Mechanical Engineering.
With the above in mind, I hope that in case you are a machine learning practitioner who’s interested by the review process and desires to get entangled, this text should provide some value.
· My Story
· What’s Peer Review?
∘ Shouldn’t Editorial Board Members be the Experts?
· Peer Review Process
· Why You Should Consider Peer Reviewing
· How Can You Get Involved?
∘ Tracking Peer Reviews using Web of Science
∘ Do I must be a printed researcher?
· How Much Time Does it Take?
· Conclusion
· Cold Email Template
· Disclaimer
In August 2024, I reached 100 verified peer reviews for 9 different academic journals and conferences. Although I performed my first review in 2016, it was not until mid-2022 that I really began having fun with the method.
As a graduate student (2015–2020), I never really enjoyed reviewing papers. As an alternative, I mostly did it as an instructional obligation when my advisor asked me to accomplish that. Moreover, I lacked confidence in my ability to critique others’ work, on condition that I only had few publications under my belt.
After graduating, I discovered it difficult to remain up-to-date with recent research. As a student, reading papers was a part of the job. In industry, nevertheless, I only read the most well-liked papers. To remain current with the newest research, fulfill my academic responsibilities, and construct a stronger research profile, I started emailing editors of assorted journals to precise my interest in becoming a reviewer. Although I received responses from almost all the journals, only 2–3 assigned me papers initially. Over time, I began receiving review requests from journals I hadn’t contacted as well.
In late 2023, I applied to IEEE RA-L for an Associate Editor role and was eventually chosen to serve within the human-robot-interaction track.
In the remaining of this text, I’ll explain:
- the importance of peer reviewing and what the method entails,
- why it’s best to consider reviewing for tutorial publications and how you may start
- time commitment and other aspects to think about
Finally, I may even share a cold email template that you could use to achieve out to editors.
Although there may be some controversy over the efficacy of the peer review process, I don’t consider myself well-versed enough to comment on that aspect. As an alternative, I’ll give attention to sharing my experiences and learnings.
