Peer Review in Practice: Introduction

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Peer review is the most common indicator of quality used in academic disciplines. It is primarily employed in the review of research submitted as articles or books. While peer review for research is the mainstay in academia, there is no corollary process for reviewing practice: in other words, the evaluation of practice or instruction does not usually follow an objective peer review model. In spite of the fact that “best practice” is a term that is widely used in a variety of settings, it has very little meaning. It may be done in the course of an annual review by a supervisor or in a classroom by a colleague or department or in the course of tenure and promotion review. However, each of these uses local norms or standards that may or may not be consistent with disciplinary values and priorities.Identifying best practices is a significant endeavor; having an explicit and consistent standard that is applied evenhandedly across the discipline or profession is invaluable. The ACRL Instruction Section’s Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online Committee has developed a standard and process that provides a model for instructional materials in librarianship; it is a model that could effectively be adopted for other areas of practice in the profession.