Abstract
AbstractIt is a common practice for authors of an academic work to thank the anonymous reviewers at the journal that is publishing it. Allegedly, scholars thank the reviewers because their comments improved the paper and thanking them is a proper way to show gratitude to them. Yet often, a paper that is eventually accepted by one journal is first rejected by other journals, and even though those journals' reviewers also supply comments that improve the quality of the work, those reviewers are not customarily thanked. We contacted prominent scholars in bioethics and philosophy of medicine and asked whether thanking such reviewers would be a welcome trend. Having received responses from 107 scholars, we discuss the suggested proposal in light of both philosophical argument and the results of this survey. We argue that when an author's work is published, the author should thank the reviewers whose comments improved the paper regardless of whether those reviewers' journals rejected or accepted the work. That is because scholars should show gratitude to those who deserve it, and those whose comments improved the paper deserve gratitude. We also consider objections against this practice raised by scholars and show why they are not entirely persuasive.
Highlights
MUCH has been written on who deserves to be credited as an author of a scholarly paper, but less ink has been spilled on who should be thanked in the acknowledgments section of the published paper
Researchers often thank the reviewers who reviewed their paper for the journal in which it is being published. This habit is seen as good academic practice and JOONA RÄSÄNEN AND PEKKA LOUHIALA
Authors show their gratitude to those reviewers because their comments improved the paper, and they deserve the acknowledgment
Summary
MUCH has been written on who deserves to be credited as an author of a scholarly paper (see Hansson, 2017; Bülow & Helgesson, 2018; Tang, 2018; Bülow & Helgesson, 2019), but less ink has been spilled on who should be thanked in the acknowledgments section of the published paper. Researchers often thank the reviewers who reviewed their paper for the journal in which it is being published. This habit is seen as good academic practice and JOONA RÄSÄNEN AND PEKKA LOUHIALA courtesy. Authors show their gratitude to those reviewers because their comments improved the paper, and they deserve the acknowledgment. Authors almost never thank reviewers who reviewed their work for journals that rejected it
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