http://theologyforum.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/rejected-the-unhappy-job-of-peer-review/ Serving the joyful cultivation of the theological craft for the life of the church: inquiring honestly, deliberating wisely, acting faithfully Wed, 15 May 2013 06:00:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://theologyforum.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/rejected-the-unhappy-job-of-peer-review/#comment-26068 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:03:20 +0000 http://theologyforum.wordpress.com/?p=4725#comment-26068 Thanks for commiserating Mike. When my essay was rejected last year I was frustrated because the reviewers offered no substantive feedback. We are all busy, I certainly understand that, but an agreement to peer review entails the responsibility to provide useful feedback when an essay is declined.

]]> http://theologyforum.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/rejected-the-unhappy-job-of-peer-review/#comment-26063 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:40:07 +0000 http://theologyforum.wordpress.com/?p=4725#comment-26063 Hi Kent, I have been on both sides of this fence, many times. I have had scores of essays (well a few) rejected by journals, sadly. In a few cases I totally agreed with the reviewers comments and they helped me sharpen my argument and writing, it was a positive experience and the articles were subsequently published. In other cases the reviewers comments were either non-existent (thanks publishers – that is helpful!), or they were unhelpful, on the level of “well I don’t agree with that argument so I don’t recommend it be published.” Who cares if you don’t agree with it! I also peer review for a number of journals and have had to decline some. It is always disappointing and I try to write very constructive comments on why it was rejected and what it may need to do to bring it up to scratch. In one case I think I had one like you are talking about and it was so bad I offered very little comment as nothing could save it.

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