Project: The field-specific nature of Peer Review
The aim of the project is to explain field-specific practices of peer review by linking them to the numerous acts of quality assessment that are embedded in researchers’ every-day practices of knowledge production and communication.
We explore the relationship between field-specific assessment practices and the corresponding everyday research practices.
Understanding these field-specific mechanisms will help to adapt formalised processes of peer review to the requirements of particular fields.
We investigate everyday quality assessments by researchers in their empirical and theoretical work, when reading publications, at conferences etc. as well as their participation in formal peer review processes. We explore everyday assessment practices by
- interviewing scientists about their experiences in assessing others’ contributions for, and
- observing discussions between researchers at conferences and seminars.
Peer review processes will be investigated by
- interviewing researchers about their participation in formalised reviews of grant proposals, publications, and job applications, and
- observing decision-making in grant panels.
The four research fields and their respective specialties we study are:
Molecular Biology
/ Plant Biology
Computer Science
/ Software Engineering & Information Systems
History
/ Medieval History
Experimental Physics
/ Ultrafast Optics
Team:
Project Leader:
Grit Laudel
Student Assistants:
Alessio Borrelli, Eva Hempel, Karl Homuth
This research project is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).