{"id":70781,"date":"2023-11-20T23:08:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T04:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=70781"},"modified":"2023-11-21T00:08:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T05:08:35","slug":"a-letter-to-reviewer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A letter to reviewer 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-70782\" src=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/reviewer.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/reviewer.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/reviewer-250x143.jpeg 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dear Reviewer 2,<\/p>\n<p>I guess your ears often burn. You know how it is when people read your reviews. That must be hard for you \u2013 I know you spend time reading and working out what to say. I also guess you must be used to getting letters which answer back and\/or show how trying to follow your advice has produced a paper unsatisfactory to its writer. And I guess you may even, from time to time, get a letter like this one, querying your understandings of research and of research writing.<\/p>\n<p>Im writing because I\u2019ve noticed that you\u2019ve recently become pretty fixated on three things. You pursue these as if there are hard and fast rules about how this trio is to\u00a0be dealt with. You don\u2019t seem to get that while academic writing largely follows conventions, these can be shifted about a bit, and sometimes a lot.<\/p>\n<p>So what are these three things? Well they are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The research question and design<\/strong>. I\u2019ve noticed, Reviewer 2, that you developed a marked tendency to approve of particular types of questions and work. The result looks a lot like you think the only research worth doing is either a systematic review or something which establishes a causal or correlative effect. You do seem to consider \u201cWhat works\u201d as The Question we all should address. But you know that other questions are also important. And OK. There\u2019s the \u201cWho gets what, why and how and who benefits?\u201d question. And the \u201cWhat happens if or when\u2026 ? question. Or \u201cWhat\u2019s actually going on here\u201d? Not to mention research that isn\u2019t a question at all, but more of a \u201cHow about if we think about this in another way?\u201d or the \u201cWhen we bring this together with that set of literatures we might frame our research\/work\/teaching differently\u2026\u201d And so on. You get the picture. I hope you get the picture. If you do you\u2019ll appreciate that you really shouldn\u2019t say that research isn\u2019t significant if it doesn\u2019t follow your favorite One or Two approaches to research. You might say the paper is not for this journal. But not that it\u2019s flawed simply because it\u2019s addressing a question you don\u2019t like. I see research as a pretty broad church and a good reviewer as someone who looks for work that is meaningful and well carried out within its own tradition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Working with literatures<\/strong>. You also seem to have pretty set ideas about what literatures work looks like Yes, a literatures section is often a convenient way for a writer to indicate where the paper sits in the field, what it draws on and what it adds or questions. But what if there isn\u2019t a literature section? If the paper irrevocably flawed without one? No. Not necessarily. Not having a literatures section does not mean that the writer has not read thoroughly. This may be the case, but it may not. It may simply be that the writer has chosen to locate their work, show how they have used other people\u2019s work and made a contribution by using literatures throughout their paper. And let\u2019s face it, a literature section is hardly a thorough review is it? Unless it is a literatures paper, a literature section is simply a quick summary of a wider underpinning review. So Reviewer 2, your job is not to look for a Literatures section per se, or to condemn a paper if it doesn\u2019t have one, but rather to see whether the\u00a0\u00a0writer has used literatures to do the work of locating, building and contributing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Methods and design.<\/strong>\u00a0Well what can I say here? Reviewer 2 you do sometimes seem to be a poor reader. Even when the text says \u201cfull details of the research design are provided on URL\u201d you still insist on every detail being given again in the paper. That\u2019s the point of hyperlinks surely. You can go to the full report or data set and see it as glorious minutiae. Yes, of course the paper needs to say enough to reassure readers that what they are about to receive is ethical, sound and trustworthy. And some journals do require more details than others. But what could be more trustworthy than making the whole shebang open? And there\u2019s the rub. OK Reviewer 2. Asking for loads more detail about methods might not be all your fault. Not having enough detail may actually be a problem created by blind peer review. The writer can\u2019t give you their URL where all of the information resides because the URL identifies them and their work. And because you can\u2019t see\u00a0\u00a0the detail and evaluate it \u2013 and that\u2019s your job after all \u2013 you feel you must say that the detail has to be in the paper. So the writer dutifully puts all the stuff in \u2013 and the result can be like a rather long ad break coming before the interesting bits. I get that you can\u2019t and probably ought not trust the writer. But perhaps there is some kind of midway here, and there is certainly no need to write your review to imply that the researcher-writer is incompetent just because you can\u2019t follow up their URL.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yes I could go on, Reviewer 2. But I won\u2019t. I do appreciate your efforts. Really I do. But you must know that my own and other people\u2019s writing lives would be a lot easier if you just stopped being so dogmatic and accusatory about non-existent rules and structural difficulties.\u00a0Get with the programme. I\u2019m just about to send off another paper and I really would welcome you getting a bit more sensible and sensitive about research questions, literatures work and research methods and design. How about it? Start now.<\/p>\n<p>Yours, hopefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Reviewer 2, I guess your ears often burn. You know how it is when people read your reviews. That must be hard for you \u2013 I know you spend time reading and working out what to say. I also guess you must be used to getting letters which answer back and\/or show how trying [&hellip;]\n&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\/\" class=\"more\">learn more&rarr;<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[13315],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-70781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-academic-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A letter to reviewer 2 - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A letter to reviewer 2 - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Reviewer 2, I guess your ears often burn. You know how it is when people read your reviews. That must be hard for you \u2013 I know you spend time reading and working out what to say. I also guess you must be used to getting letters which answer back and\/or show how trying [&hellip;]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-21T04:08:58+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-21T05:08:35+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/reviewer.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"A letter to reviewer 2\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-21T04:08:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-21T05:08:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":982,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/reviewer.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"academic writing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/\",\"name\":\"A letter to reviewer 2 - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/reviewer.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-21T04:08:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-21T05:08:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/reviewer.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/reviewer.jpeg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-letter-to-reviewer-2\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A letter to reviewer 2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer &amp; 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