Important points in the peer review cycle
Every scientific journal or publishing company typically has its own guidelines for the peer-reviewing process. Wiley’s peer-reviewing cycle is comprised of ten steps (“The peer review process,” n.d.): Submission of the paper, editorial office assessment, appraisal by editor-in-chief, associate editor assignment, reviewer invitation, handling invitation responses, actual reviewing process, review evaluation, decision communication, and publishing process. The most important parts of it are paper submission, editorial assessment, reviewing process, and publishing process, as these are the core processes behind the peer-reviewing cycle. Everything else is secondary.
How an editor differs from a peer reviewer
Editors and peer reviewers are not the same. Editors are paid workers that work for the company on a daily basis, while reviewers are volunteers. They do not work with a particular journal or publisher on a permanent basis. While editors typically have some degree of knowledge about the subject, professional competence in a peer reviewer is a requirement.
How to determine whether the article was peer-reviewed
A peer-reviewed article is typically reviewed by two or more peers with a degree of academic achievement in the field. Most scientific journals implement the peer-reviewing system in order to give their articles more credibility. Some large publishing companies, like Wiley and Elsevier, also use peer-reviewers to check their journals and books. In order to determine if my article is peer-reviewed or not, I would first investigate the source. A random article found on the internet is typically not trust-worthy.
Where to look for peer-reviewed information
As a student, I have access to the university’s database that contains a number of free-access peer-reviewed articles. Other than that, I can look for them on the internet. There are several free and pay-for-access databases with extensive libraries that contain various articles I may require for academic research.
References
The peer review process. (n.d.). Web.