I realize few academics read my musings. (Heck, few non-academics read them either!) Nevertheless, I have a plea: please be a peer reviewer when asked! I get hit with this particular conundrum from both sides—as an editor potential reviewers simply don’t want to do the work (hint: we’re all “too busy”!) and as an erstwhile member of the academy, I also get asked to do reviews. Out of a sense of obligation, I always accept the invitations, if at all possible. You see, I know how hard it is to secure reviewers. In the past two-and-a-half years, I’ve been tapped as a reviewer five times. Ironically, when I had my full-time teaching position (for fourteen years!), I was never asked. How times have changed! Editors are now beating the academic bushes for those of us in the hinterland who have credentials and good will, even as we’re out gathering twigs.
You see, academic publication simply cannot go forward without peer review. If you publish, someone was willing to review your work. Don’t you think it’s only fair to offer the same courtesy? Academia used to be, and still should be, a community. Yes, those who break into those coveted teaching positions are often Lone Ranger types, shooting from the scholastic hip. Still, the system only works if we help one another. One of the long-term accusations against the academy is that those within have tunnel vision. (I suspect there may be some neurodiversity going on here.) That may be true, but try to consider the wider picture. Teaching jobs are tough, yes, but the rewards are enormous. Believe me, if you haven’t had to work a 9-2-5, you may not realize just how privileged you are!
Many editors dread the prospect of having to find new reviewers. They spend time on university websites that are designed for recruitment, inviting them back to school (believe me, it’s tempting!), not to help editors find experts. And we don’t like to use the same person over and over. Reviewing also has some benefits—there are carrots as well as sticks! I encounter new and untested ideas as a peer reviewer. Who doesn’t like to be the first to get a crack at new knowledge being born? My own portfolio of review requests stretches from semitic goddesses to the weather to monsters. I’ve published in those areas and colleagues had to read my materials to make that possible. So if you’re an academic and someone asks you to be a peer reviewer, please say yes. Pretty please, with sugar on top.
