Call for Feedback: Proposed Changes to How ERIC Indicates Peer Review
ERIC is in the process of conducting a biannual update to its
Selection Policy and is proposing to change how we identify records as being
peer-reviewed. The proposed policy will extend the peer-reviewed indicator to grey
literature, such as conference papers, reports, and other materials. If adopted,
these materials will be eligible to be flagged as peer reviewed, just like peer-reviewed
journal articles and reports from the Institute of Education Sciences currently
are.
We are making this change because we want to make it easy to find all types of high-quality
education research, and we think this change will make the collection more complete
and useful. Learn more about why we are making the change
here.
What do you think of this change? Consider the following
questions in your response:
- Would having grey literature marked as peer reviewed be beneficial to you?
- Do you have suggestions for how we could improve the proposed policy?
Please send your feedback to ERICRequests@ED.gov
by July 31, 2015. We will consider your feedback and will discuss any proposed changes
at our Town Hall Meeting on September 15, 2015. To receive the invitation, please
sign up for the ERIC newsflash. You can also follow us on
Facebook and Twitter.
Proposed ERIC Peer Review Policy
ERIC accepts peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed material for indexing. The indicator
of peer review is assigned to ERIC records if the journal and non-journal content
is determined to have been peer reviewed.
ERIC recognizes the following types of peer review:
- Blind, or Anonymous Peer Review – Content is reviewed by external reviewers and the author's identity is unknown to the reviewer. A double-blind peer review process is where both the reviewer and the author remain anonymous throughout the process.
- Expert Peer Review – Content is reviewed by internal or external reviewers, and the author's identity may or may not be known to the reviewer.
A peer review process employing at least two reviewers with scholarly affiliation
is preferred. Internal, editorial reviews are not recognized by ERIC as an accepted
type of peer review.
Content from sources under agreement:
To determine if content published by an approved source is peer reviewed, ERIC will
research the publisher's website to consider their peer review policies and processes.
If this information is found, the peer review designation will be automatically
assigned to the ERIC records. If not, the publisher may complete an application
form documenting their process.
- For journals, the peer review designation is determined at the journal level and applied to all ERIC records created for the source.
- For non-journal publishers, the peer review designation may be assigned to ERIC records for all of their content, or to records created for a specific series or type of publication (e.g. conference papers).
Content acquired from individuals via the ERIC Online Submission System:
A federal grantee or contractor may submit peer-reviewed work that was supported
by federal funding and peer-reviewed. The peer review may be conducted as part of
a journal submission or, for non-journal sources, through an external process. Contractors
and grantees should indicate during submission that the content has been peer reviewed.
Content that was not supported by federal sources may only be marked as peer reviewed
if evidence is provided that the material is from a peer-reviewed source. This will
be demonstrated by submitting a URL to the publisher's page outlining the peer review
process.
