Teaching graduate students how to review research articles and respond to reviewer comments

Abstract

This article deals with teaching students how to review research articles of other authors and how to respond to reviewer comments related to their own articles. By teaching these skills, one educates students how to do something which is undoubtedly much more important for their professional development: how to properly do their own research and how to properly write their own research articles. The guidelines given are primarily intended for students of computer science. Nevertheless, the notions presented here are applicable to areas other than computing. Since there are so many branches within computing, each one characterized by its own particular features, this article also includes a section on variations of presented methodology, which are of interest for each particular branch of computer science covered by the authors of this article. In general, the review process consists of two main parts: formal review and quality review. Led by the lack of results in the available literature, an analysis based on readability index evaluates average article acceptance rates, review times, and delay period for publishing accepted articles depending on the following: article types, willingness of reviewers to do reviews, journal impact factor, and the scientific field. Quality review must be taken into account for all types of articles. Appendix A describes specific experiences from various scientific fields. Appendix B gives specific guidelines for a number of fields covered by the authors of this article.