Do reviewers get their deserved acknowledgments from the authors of manuscripts?

Pengfei Jia, Weixi Xie, Guangyao Zhang and Xianwen Wang ()
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Pengfei Jia: Dalian University of Technology
Weixi Xie: Dalian University of Technology
Guangyao Zhang: Dalian University of Technology
Xianwen Wang: Dalian University of Technology

Scientometrics, 2023, vol. 128, issue 10, No 14, 5687-5703

Abstract: Abstract As the gatekeeper of science, reviewers play an essential role in academic publishing by improving the quality of papers and maintaining research integrity. In this research, we examined whether reviewers receive gratitude from authors for their reviewed manuscript. We analyzed over 46 million papers from 2001 to 2020 and found that although the proportion of acknowledges to reviewers in different subject areas has increased in recent years, the overall proportion of acknowledges to reviewers is low, with the lowest proportion being the field of Health Sciences and the highest in the field of Social Sciences. We also discovered that the proportion of acknowledged reviewers from different regions varied, with America, Europe and Oceania having a generally higher proportion than Asia. Our results indicate that the scientific community is generally unaware of the contributions made by reviewers, and reviewers have not received the acknowledgments they deserve. Additionally, we found that a small number of journals had more papers acknowledging reviewers. Through regression analysis, we found that although authors acknowledged the reviewer's contribution, their decision to write down acknowledgements were influenced by their language proficiency.

Keywords: Reviewer; Acknowledgement; Reviewer contribution; Peer review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-023-04790-7

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