By Trevor Hedberg
One of the Cocoon’s recent posts concerned a reader inquiry about why it takes some referees longer than 2 weeks to review a paper. This is an understandable question – it’s something I wondered about when I was a graduate student – and the ensuing discussion generated an array of responses. Some argued that it wasn’t excusable to take longer than 2 weeks to review a paper; others argued that taking longer was often justified due to busy schedules and a host of other reasons. I thought it might be worth describing my own approach to refereeing papers, how it has changed as I have moved to new jobs, and why I now rarely complete a referee report within two weeks of acceptance.
When I held postdoctoral positions, I reviewed papers pretty quickly. I would read the paper during an afternoon, think about it for a few days (unless it was of such poor quality that it did not warrant much reflection), and then write up my comments during another afternoon. I also did not receive a ton of referee requests, so I typically just had one article review on my to-do list.
I have not been able to maintain that swift completion time in my current position. The biggest reason why is that the demands of my current post are significantly greater than they were during my postdocs – I teach more classes and have much greater service obligations. There are only so many hours in each week that I can reasonably devote to service without a drop in the quality of my work and an increasing risk of burnout. Some of those hours get consumed by meetings, workshops, and various forms of paperwork. I also do a fair amount of reviewing that does not involve philosophy journals. Last year, for instance, I reviewed hundreds of scholarship applications for the W.A. Franke Honors College and evaluated 52 student writing samples as part of a general education review conducted across the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University.
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