Outlines High Standards in Peer Review for Scholarly Monographs
New York, NY, and Washington, DC—The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) today released Best Practices for Peer Review, an AAUP Handbook. The handbook articulates a set of practices that comprise a rigorous process of peer review for scholarly monographs. “Best Practices for Peer Review” will serve as a core resource for the AAUP community, providing a guide for new editors in the field and new scholarly publishing programs, as well as a reference point for scholars, authors, and universities.
Read and download Best Practices for Peer Review >
The handbook was drafted through a two-year consensus-building process by the 2014-15 and 2015-16 AAUP Acquisitions Editorial Committees, chaired by Mary Francis (2014-15, University of Michigan Press) and Mick Gusinde-Duffy (2015-16, University of Georgia Press). AAUP thanks both the committees for their dedication and hard work, as well as all those individuals who contributed their expertise to the Handbook’s development.
As the Committee notes in the handbook’s Preamble, “the peer review process is highly complex, involves many individuals, and must be responsive to the norms of the appropriate fields.” Disciplinary expectations, administrative procedures, inter-disciplinary and creative works, and innovative publishing formats may all demand changes in approach, but the “Best Practices” Handbook provides a solid understanding of accepted standards against which such necessary changes can be weighed.
“Holding to high standards of editorial and peer review is one of the primary ways that AAUP members advance their mission of academic excellence,” said AAUP Executive Director Peter Berkery. “Demonstration of these standards in their publication programs is central to the membership eligibility of nonprofit scholarly publishers, and is the very substance of AAUP members’ authority to validate and disseminate long-form scholarship.”
“Best Practices for Peer Review” is freely shareable as a PDF or online text and will distributed as a print booklet to AAUP members, attendees at the AAUP 2016 Annual Meeting, and upon request to members of the scholarly and academic community.
About AAUP
The Association of American University Presses is an organization of more than 140 nonprofit scholarly publishers from around the world. Since 1937, AAUP advances the essential role of a global community of publishers whose mission is to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge. The Association holds integrity, diversity, stewardship, and intellectual freedom as core values. AAUP members are active across many scholarly disciplines, including the humanities, arts, and sciences, they publish significant regional and literary work, and are innovators in the world of digital publishing.
All Inquiries:
Brenna McLaughlin
bmclaughlin@aaupnet.org
+1–917-244-2051