The Maritime Economist Magazine Spring 2015 | Page 44

THEMARITIME Economist

CHALLENGE

Peer Review as an essential
part of scientific publishing
Self-perpetuating research and Flip side of peer reviews
Okan Duru, Ph.D.
‘How to Review a Paper’ was the title of a special
session at the 2014 Conference of International
Association of Maritime Economist, Norfolk VA, U.S.
Mary R. Brooks particularly organized the session
for young scholars to understand review process
as well as academic career through authorship and
editorship. Although ‘How to Review a Paper’ is
usually thought to be an emerging topic for young
scholars, it may also be a substantial debate for entire
academic society.
The track records of papers with extraordinary
impact (e.g. citations, creating a new research field)
indicate that an innovative study may need long time
to be recognized by the academic society. Among
these studies, there are several papers published
in non-refereed form (conference proceedings,
working papers) at first, then invited for journal
publication after several years. That is very common
among the most cited papers in economics.

ME Mag

Scholars with change-making ideas find it difficult to
convey their message to their colleagues. Each review
is backed with a basis of reviewer’s standpoint evolved
through the literature, the existing setting of the field,
while an innovative paper probably undermines the
basis. The conflict between conventional basis and
44 the paradigm shift makes the review process even
harder. I would like to discuss the problem with some

comments from previous publications and emphasize
the ‘innovative’ role of reviews.
Scientific research is somewhat a profession, but
it is more of a key element of scholars’ life. When
scientific research turns to be a joyful activity in which
you lost yourself, you may not find an alternative way
of happiness. Many eminent scholars spend most of
their time in their research lab or office. Performing
a research is absolutely the major objective of
scientific interest while presenting the research and its
outcome is another unavoidable step. Publication
among the ways of presenting research (e.g.
conferences) would be an integral part of scientific
world. The uniqueness of publication comes from
its tangible and measurable features. It is very
difficult to rate a scientific thought or innovation while
it is easy to count citations from a particular paper. In
the last decade, the number of scholarly journals has
almost doubled with the open-access boom (thanks
to the age of internet). Now all over the world,
there is a huge research population who seeks for a
publication slot especially in leading journals. Academic
journals receive a large volume of submissions each
year, and handling of these submissions (even just for
rejection) is now very complicated, time-consuming
and intellectual task load. Journal editors of our age
play great role, and it would be impossible without a
peer review procedure.