What can we learn from our peer reviewers

Abstract

We are indebted to our peer reviewers. They read through the manuscripts submitted to us and try and improve the studies' methods and clarity of reporting. This is how we see the role of peer reviewers: not necessarily to make a decision for us whether to publish or not; but to help the authors to improve their methods, carry out better analyses, report their findings with greater clarity. We try to show our appreciation to our peer reviewers. Each year we send letters recognizing the efforts of our best reviewers. Peer reviewers who wrote a review within 2 weeks have free access to the whole content of CMI for 1 year. During the 2017 ECCMID in Vienna CMI and Elsevier hosted a dinner to which we invited our outstanding peer reviewers. A good peer review takes time and effort. Criticism is raised against the peer-review system, mainly because the quality of peer reviews is heterogeneous. We do not know whether the system as a whole works [[1]Smith R. Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals.J R Soc Med. 2006; 99: 178-182Crossref PubMed Scopus (570) Google Scholar]. But I think we all agree that a good, helpful peer review is useful to the author (and to the editor as well). It is not easy to define a good peer review. This is why we have asked three peer reviewers who were extremely helpful to CMI in recent years to tell us what constitutes a good peer review. ‘Extremely helpful’ means that their reviews were given maximum grading by the editors, that they have written a high number of reviews, and that they have always agreed to do the reviews. We have also asked them to tell us about themselves: which stage of career they are at, what research or clinical work they are doing. This is to put their advice in context. The three reviewers are Onya Opota (Institute of Microbiology, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland), Jean-Yves Madec (Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire (Anses), Unité Antibiorésistance et Virulence Bactériennes-Université de Lyon, France) and Werner Zimmerli (Interdisciplinary Unit for Orthopaedic Infections, Kantonsspital Liestal, Switzerland). Their recent publications are cited below [2Stupar P. Opota O. Longo G. Prod'hom G. Dietler G. Greub G. et al.Nanomechanical sensor applied to blood culture pellets: a fast approach to determine the antibiotic susceptibility against agents of bloodstream infections.Clin Microbiol Infect. 2017; 23: 400-405Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (42) Google Scholar, 3Opota O. Senn L. Prod'hom G. Mazza-Stalder J. Tissot F. Greub G. et al.Added value of molecular assay Xpert MTB/RIF compared to sputum smear microscopy to assess the risk of tuberculosis transmission in a low-prevalence country.Clin Microbiol Infect. 2016; 22: 613-619Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (37) Google Scholar, 4Madec J.Y. Haenni M. Nordmann P. Poirel L. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase/AmpC-and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in animals: a threat for humans?.Clin Microbiol Infect. 2017 Jan 29; (pii: S1198–743X(17)30046-0) ([Epub ahead of print])https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2017.01.013Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (141) Google Scholar, 5Haenni M. Poirel L. Kieffer N. Châtre P. Saras E. Métayer V. et al.Co-occurrence of extended spectrum β lactamase and MCR-1 encoding genes on plasmids.Lancet Infect Dis. 2016; 16: 281-282Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (162) Google Scholar, 6Sendi P. Zimmerli W. The use of rifampin in staphylococcal orthopaedic-device-related infections.Clin Microbiol Infect. 2017; 23: 349-350Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (18) Google Scholar, 7Ilchmann T. Zimmerli W. Bolliger L. Graber P. Clauss M. Risk of infection in primary total hip arthroplasty with direct anterior approach or lateral transgluteal approach: a prospective cohort study of 1104 hips.BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2016; 17: 471Crossref PubMed Scopus (30) Google Scholar]. Their input can be found on our website (see Supplementary material) and on ESCMID Facebook. The following is the supplementary data related to this article: Download .docx (.21 MB) Help with docx files