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Evaluating a Paper: Key Questions and Considerations for Referees

• Referees should ask critical questions when evaluating a paper, in addition to those listed under “Critical reading” earlier in the chapter.
• Questions to consider include the timeliness and relevance of the contribution to the likely audience.
• The presence of a critical analysis is important, as authors should identify the strengths, weaknesses, and implications of their work.
• Most papers have an explicit or implicit hypothesis and proposal or innovation; identifying these can help evaluate the paper’s pertinence and completeness.
• The quality of a paper can be reflected in its bibliography, including the number of references and their relevance to the topic.
• Referees should be wary of papers that are incomplete or show little effort to find relevant literature or proofread for errors.
• Referees should search for errors in spelling, syntax, written expression, and consistency in variables, table layout, and formatting.
• Errors in mathematics can be serious defects that make the paper unacceptable.
• Poorly written papers can be accepted, but incompetence in presentation is grounds for rejection.
• Excellence in presentation does not justify acceptance if the paper does not contribute novelty or innovation.
• Referees should reject papers that do no more than reproduce existing work, even if well-written and developed with care.
• Referees should aim to provide a thorough evaluation that helps authors improve their work and contribute to the field.