Meaning & use
peer review
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Meanings
noununcountable
The process in which experts in the same field read and judge a piece of academic or professional work before it is published.
Grammar: Used without 'a' or a plural: 'undergo peer review'. Say 'a peer review' only when you mean one single report or one round of it.
Patterns
- go through peer review
- undergo peer review
- be subject to peer review
- the peer review process
The paper went through peer review and came back with three pages of comments.
Journals rely on peer review to filter out weak or flawed studies.
Her grant application is still under peer review.
nouncountable
A single written assessment of a colleague's or a student's work by someone of similar status.
Grammar: Countable when it means one report: 'a peer review', 'two peer reviews'.
Patterns
- write a peer review
- give someone a peer review
- a peer review of something
Each student writes a peer review of a classmate's draft.
He gave me a fair peer review of my teaching last term.
Common combinations
- undergo peer review
- All articles must undergo peer review before they appear.
- peer-reviewed journal
- She only cites work from peer-reviewed journals.
- the peer review process
- The peer review process can take several months.
- blind peer review
- In blind peer review, the reviewers do not know who wrote the paper.
- pass peer review
- The study failed to pass peer review and was rejected.
Synonyms and how they differ
- refereeing
- Refereeing is the journal's side of the same process; peer review is the general name for the whole system.
- assessment
- Assessment is any kind of judging; peer review specifically means judging by people in the same field.
Word family
- peer-reviewed adjective
- Describes work that has already passed this process.
- peer reviewer noun
- A person who reads and judges someone else's work.
Commonly confused: peer review or peer pressure?
peer review vs peer pressure
Peer pressure is the influence of friends or classmates on your behavior; peer review is expert judgment of written work.
Practice
Before publication, every article in this journal must go ______ peer review.
Choose one answer.
'Go through peer review' is the fixed phrase for the process. 'Under peer review' also exists but needs the verb 'be': 'The article is under peer review.'
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “peer review”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.