[Coral-List] New study: Unprofessional peer reviews disproportionately harm underrepresented groups

[Silbiger, Nyssa J]

Dear Coral-list:


My colleague, Dr. Amber Stubler, and I are pleased to announce that our manuscript, “Unprofessional peer reviews disproportionately harm underrepresented groups in STEM,” is available (open access) in PeerJ.<https://peerj.com/articles/8247/> In an anonymous IRB-approved survey of 1100 participants across 14 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields from 46 countries, we investigated the pervasiveness and long-term implications of receiving unprofessional comments as an author during peer review. Specifically, we assessed authors’ perceptions of scientific aptitude, productivity, and career trajectory after receiving an unprofessional peer review. We show that unprofessional peer reviews are pervasive in STEM fields as over half of our survey respondents stated that they received one. However, traditionally underrepresented groups in STEM fields were most likely to perceive negative impacts on scientific aptitude, productivity, and career advancement after receiving an unprofessional peer review. Studies show that a negative perception of aptitude leads to lowered self-confidence, short-term disruptions in success and productivity, and delays in career advancement. Therefore, our results indicate that unprofessional reviews likely have and will continue to perpetuate the gap in STEM fields for traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences. This study provides quantitative evidence of the impacts of unprofessional and irrelevant peer review comments on underrepresented groups in STEM, and further justifies reformation of scientific community practices.


<https://peerj.com/articles/8247/>

Silbiger NJ, Stubler AD. 2019. Unprofessional peer reviews disproportionately harm underrepresented groups in STEM. PeerJ 7:e8247 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8247<https://peerj.com/articles/8247/>


Sincerely,

Dr. Nyssa Silbiger (nyssa.silbiger at csun.edu<mailto:nyssa.silbiger at csun.edu>) and Dr. Amber Stubler (astubler at oxy.edu<mailto:astubler at oxy.edu>)

https://peerj.com/articles/8247/

--
**********************************
Nyssa Silbiger, PhD
Assistant Professor

Department of Biology
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge,CA 91330-8303
website: http://<http://nyssasilbiger.com/>silbigerlab.com<http://silbigerlab.com>
Twitter: @NSilbiger
email: nyssa.silbiger at csun.edu<mailto:nyssa.silbiger at csun.edu>
Tel: (818) 677 - 4427
[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1l7thWCay3a5uQ9SdJWiAWxjuW-sj_HwX&revid=0B5-p7FpDk9gRbFR4SUVtTzFVWGVkQ2ZyYUpOTVpmbitqREFNPQ]