Vol. 14 No. 2 July 2003
Taking the contribution of reviewers for granted
Each year in July, the Journal lists the names of scholars who have reviewed papers that year. Each of the the reviews is done on a voluntary basis by our editorial board and by outside experts who are called in to assess papers in their area of interest. This practice is common in academia, and we take it for granted. The importance of this work is often overlooked and the magnitude of the contribution rarely acknowledged. We want to take a few moments here to correct this situation.
The role of the reviewer is both as a quality controller and a consultant who provides valuable advice aimed at improving papers before publication. Both roles are critical to completing a scholarly journal's mission. Approximately 80% of the papers we publish in the IJFE undergo substantial changes as a result on the advice of reviewers. This raises the quality of the material published and helps scholars improve their skills over the long term. Without the work of reviewers, many papers would never be published and good research would go unreported.
We rarely consider the amount of volunteer time required to publish a scientific journal. There are eight full papers and one technical note in this issue. Given the IJFE's current acceptance rate, this means that another eight papers have, on average, been reviewed and refused publication. With three reviewers per paper, this implies that 48 reviews were completed in preparation for this issue. Taking approximately 6 hours of concentrated time per paper (a conservative estimate), our reviewers have cumulatively invested approximately 300 hours to bring this issue to print. All of them are senior scholars or researchers with busy professional lives. As a result, we ought to be particularly grateful that they are willing to donate this very substantial amount of time in the name of improving the quality of scholarship in our field.
We therefore want to gratefully acknowledge the immense contribution made by our scientific reviewers, without whom the operation of the International Journal of Forest Engineering would be impossible.
Pierre Zundel
Managing Editor