The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is seeking volunteers to serve as peer reviewers for submissions for the 2017 AERA Annual Meeting. A quality peer review system is the bedrock for a quality annual meeting, and thus we encourage persons with depth of research expertise to volunteer to review and respond to this call.
Background Peer review panels are launched well in advance of the opening of the submission process. The goal is to enable program chairs to constitute well-qualified and inclusive panels and to notify reviewers well in advance that they are making a commitment to review submissions. Units (divisions, sections of divisions, SIGs, and committees) establish expert reviewer panels to evaluate approximately 10 to 20 paper or session submissions per person depending on the number of submissions and the unit preference.
Program chairs will be selecting a roster of reviewers from volunteers or invited individuals to serve on these expert review panels. The process will begin with volunteers signing up to volunteer as reviewers beginning in March, with the review panels to be constituted by June. Review panels will be designed to reflect the breadth of expertise needed by that unit, with a process that is transparent and provides for greater consistency in the quality of reviewing. The review panel selection procedure also includes review of the roster of reviewers by a unit head (division program chair/division vice president, SIG chair) before it is finalized. Units with small numbers of members and/or submissions have the option to coordinate an integrated review process by constituting a shared review panel with another unit building upon reviewers with complementary expertise. Such collaboration will avert the problem of conflicts of interest or an insufficient number of reviewers.
Serving on a review panel is a selective process, is intended to be considered an honor, and will be publicized to the AERA community as a form of important service to the Association and the field. Reviewers will be publicly acknowledged, also adding to the transparency of the process and the accountability of each submission unit for ensuring that review panels reflect the criteria for selection.
Volunteer for Service When? Volunteer to serve as a peer reviewer by registering in the 2017 Annual Meeting Online Program system. The system will be open March 17– May 13, 2016 to register as a volunteer reviewer.
How? Individuals interested in being considered as peer reviewers are encouraged to volunteer for specific units (divisions, SIGs, or committees) through the AERA online program portal. Go to www.aera.net and log in with your username and password. After you login, click ‘My AERA’ at the top of the page, scroll down to the 2017 Annual Meeting and click ‘Online Program Portal’. Volunteers who are selected by program chairs to serve on review panels will receive an invitation to review in early June, 2016.
Where? Individuals may volunteer to serve as a peer reviewer for more than one unit. If selected to serve on a review panel, each reviewer will typically be asked to review a minimum of (10) submissions and up to (20) for units that receive a large number of submissions. For units that receive a small number of submissions, reviewers may be asked to review fewer submissions. Reviews will take place during a 3-week period from August 10 – 31. Interested researchers should volunteer only if available during the reviewing time span and able to undertake a set of reviews. Please keep this in mind as you consider volunteering your service and contribution.
Who? Any AERA member or non-member may volunteer for consideration as a peer reviewer. Peer reviewers need to have appropriate substantive background and expertise as noted below in the Panel Reviewer Selection Criteria section. During the volunteer reviewer registration process, please answer the questions relevant to your background and experience.
Panel Reviewer Selection Criteria Review panels will be constituted to be inclusive of well-qualified researchers knowledgeable across the span of research topics, methods, and modes of inquiry likely to be considered by a submission unit. The criteria for invited panel reviewers include such considerations as:
(a) experience in some form of peer reviewing, (b) service on other professional review panels, (c) knowledge of the field, (d) scholarly productivity or roles that require research expertise, (e) knowledge of the emerging literature, and (f) broad knowledge of a range of researchers and research specialties in an area.
Graduate students may be invited to serve as panel reviewers. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three reviewers and may be reviewed by a graduate student or students serving as additional reviewers. All reviews, including graduate student reviews, will be provided to submitters, although graduate student review scores are not included in the scoring calculations. When graduate students are serving as panel reviewers, the unit program chair is encouraged to incorporate a plan to provide feedback and mentoring to graduate students to enrich the educational value of this experience.
Accepting an Invitation to Serve on a Peer Review Panel For the 2017 Annual Meeting, volunteers selected to serve on review panels will receive an invitation no later than June 1, 2016 for each unit selected. Volunteers must accept or decline the invitation no later than June 8 in order to constitute the panels by mid-June. Reviewers will be expected to review submissions during a 3-week period from August 10 - 31. The approximate number of submissions to be evaluated by each reviewer will be specified in the invitation to serve. Those accepting invitations from more than one unit should anticipate reviewing from 10 to 20 submissions per each unit depending on the unit. Peer review panels are non-collaborative panels and reviewers will be able to anonymously view other reviews for the same submission at the conclusion of the review process after a final accept or reject decision has been made on each proposal.
Review Procedure Reviewers will use the criteria identified in the Call for Submissions to evaluate paper and session submissions. AERA’s policies on blind review will remain unchanged. Blind review is required for paper submissions. For session submissions, the decision whether or not to require blind review is delegated to the submission unit.
Reviewers must adhere to the AERA conflicts of interest policy (adopted January 2008) and recuse themselves from consideration of a submission where necessary. Reviewers also are required to adhere to confidentiality rules regarding the consideration of submissions.