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Books and Journals in the Social Sciences: Publication Process

Publication Process

Peer Review Process: Explanation

Peer Review: Articles that have been reviewed by other experts so the reader can be reasonably assured that the article contains valid information.

This process often takes months and involves the authors who did the research submitting their finished article to a journal, the journal editor will anonymize the article and have three anonymous reviewers (researchers who work and publish in the same field as the article's authors) read the article and judge its credibility and thoroughness - they will recommend if the article should be published, or if it needs changes. The editor will share the feedback from the reviewers with the authors - no one but the editor knows the identity of the author and the reviewers. 

a diagram of the peer review process. three stars represent the authors who submit their article to the journal. The journal editor sends the article to the three anon reviewers. The reviewers send feedback to the journal. The journal sends feedback to the authors.

Article Retraction

Peer-reviewed articles are not infallible and are sometimes "retracted". This is when an already published article is removed from a journal. This decision may be made by the journal's editor and/or editorial board. Retractions do not happen because of small editorial errors. An article would be corrected in this case. Retractions reflect more serious issues with an article.

Retractions may occur because of

  • errors in the research
  • issues with reproducibility of the research
  • plagiarism
  • falsification of data or results
  • fabrication of data or results
  • copyright infringement
  • failure to disclose conflict of interest
  • no institutional review board approval for research on human subjects or animals