 | The following is a proposed Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. |
Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a process of subjecting an author's scholarly work or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the field. It is done for quality assurance and elimination of incorrect information. This is applicable both to strict original research in the sense of e.g. lab studies or clinical trials, as well as original synthesis, such as systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
A peer reviewed article may be edited after peer review, and increased changes to the article may cause an increased need to repeat a peer review.
Recommended process
editPeer review of works in Wikiversity should be done according to the following steps:
- One or more peer reviewers are asked to perform a peer review of the work. Presentation of the work can consist of adding scientific text to a Wikiversity page. (Example article), or sending the work confidentially to the peer reviewer and adding it to a Wikiversity page after the peer review is done. The peer reviewer(s) should:
- have public contact information (or be willing to be contacted by a Wikimedia volunteer by peer review verification if necessary)
- have the expertise in the subject to be able to analyze the work for quality assurance. For simple works a primary school teacher can possibly be an appropriate peer reviewer, while a professor in the subject may be needed for complex works.
- preferably not have conflicts of interests that could substantially affect the judgment in performing the peer review.
See also: Finding peer reviewer-section below
- In the making of a peer review, the peer reviewer(s) writes a "peer review statement" (also called "peer review certification"; example), which should include the following:
- A link to the page in Wikiversity
- Date of peer review (or last date of peer review period)
- A disclosure of conflicts of interests. For example, if the author pays the peer reviewer directly, the peer review statement should include "Conflicts of interest: The author payed the peer reviewer directly for the service".
- A licensing statement that allows usage in Wikiversity, such as "This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike 3.0 Unported License" at the bottom. This does not need to be added if writing a peer review directly in Wikiversity online, since it is implied when doing so.
It is recommended to cite sources for any factual claims in the peer review.
- The peer review statement is submitted, by either of the following methods:
- Starting a new page in Wikiversity, which is recommended for peer review statements consisting of text only.
- Uploading to Wikimedia Commons, which is recommended for pdf or jpg files. (Example of an uploaded peer review statement)
- Sending the work to Wikiversity Journal coordinator at haggstrom.mikael
wikiversityjournal.org, which is possible for peer reviews of works intended to be submitted to Wikiversity Journal.
- Optionally, the tag {{Peer reviewed|URL of peer review statement}} is added to the page of the scientific text. Example of tag:
- {{Peer reviewed|https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peer_review_certification_of_2012_Uppsala_teaspoon_study.jpg}}
Works that have undergone external peer review can undergo peer review verification for further quality assurance. See Wikiversity:Peer review verification for more information on this matter.
Finding peer reviewer
editThere are several alternatives in finding a peer reviewer:
- If the article is medical research, peer review may be arranged by contacting Mikael Häggström, editor-in-chief of Wikiversity Journal of Medicine: haggstrom.mikael wikiversityjournal.org
- For other subjects, it can be attempted to ask for peer review at the talk page of the most subject-specific Wikiversity school category, but an answer is far from guaranteed.
- External peer review can also be performed by directly contacting freelance peer reviewers, such as can be found at:
- Freelance Directory (searching by "Service Types: review and criticism") at the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA).
- List of providers of manuscript & publication services at the Council of Science Editors (CSE).
In Wikiversity Journal
editPeer reviewed works may be eligible for inclusion in Wikiversity Journal. After completed peer review, a request for inclusion can be made at the talk page of Wikiversity Journal, or by emailing the coordinator Mikael Häggström at:
haggstrom.mikael
wikiversityjournal.org
Usage as a reference in Wikipedia
editWikiversity pages are not reliable source for Wikipedia purposes. Sister wiki links, which may be to specific Wikiversity pages, may generally be placed under External links in Wikipedia articles.