The Duck of Minerva

Peer review: a quick query

by Dan Nexon

7 July 2008, 1419 EDT


I’ve written before on issues related to the state of peer review. The topic comes up frequently on many academic blogs. But having just received the final report on a manuscript I reviewed (note: not that I wrote), I feel compelled to ask the following question:

Given the ABYSMAL level of professionalism among peer reviewers, why do we continue to place so much stock in peer-reviewed publications in International Relations?

I wish I could say more about the review that sent me (yet again) over the edge, but I feel comfortable pointing out that writing ten sentences on a long, well-developed, and sophisticated paper constitutes the peer-review equivalent of gross negligence–even without a pat (and inaccurate) appeal to the history of political thought as grounds for dismissing multiple pages of argumentation in a manuscript.

On this general note, it might be cathartic if a few of our readers contributed their favorite peer-review phrases that fall into one of two categories.

First, those that should never, ever appear in a peer review, such as:”this manuscript reads like a seminar paper” or “if [concept/theory/position] means anything, it means [something other than what the author has spent many pages demonstrating]”

Second, those that require translation for a reader to understand their actual meaning, such as: “readers of [journal name] are unlikely to be interested in this manuscript” or “I will evaluate the manuscript on its own terms.”

(The former really means, of course, “I wasn’t interested in this manuscript” while the latter translates as “I will launch an external critique of the paper that ignores the author’s scope conditions.”)

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.

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