Guidelines for Peer Reviews
The following set of questions and statements are to guide you in your peer review
process. Please feel free to write additional comments on the paper. Remember, both
positive and negative criticism is helpful in producing a high quality product.
Introduction
1. Write a one-sentence summary of each paragraph in the introduction. The
summary sentence should explain the main point (thesis sentence) of the
paragraph. If you have trouble doing this for one or more paragraphs,
explain the nature of your confusion (briefly).
2. Do the sentences link together to form a larger, connected argument? If not,
explain where you had trouble forming links between paragraphs.
3. Does the author use empirical evidence (experimental methods and data) to
support the conclusion they draw or arguments they make? Give an example
of a place where empirical evidence is lacking or a place where it is used well.
4. Is the motivation for the experiment clear? Why is the experiment being
conducted? Does the author explain both the theoretical and empirical
questions that motivated the research? Is the logical connection between
these questions apparent?
Method/Results
5. Does the Method section adequately describe the procedures and stimuli
used? What additional information would be helpful to the reader?
6. Are the results explained clearly? Does the author explain the important
patterns in the data?
Discussion
7. Write a one-sentence summary of each paragraph in the discussion. The
summary sentence should explain the main point (thesis sentence) of the
paragraph. If you have trouble doing this for one or more paragraphs,
explain the nature of your confusion (briefly).
8. Do the sentences link together to form a larger, connected argument? If not,
explain where you had trouble forming links between paragraphs.
9. Does the author use empirical evidence (experimental methods and data) to
support the conclusion they draw or arguments they make? Give an example
of a place where empirical evidence is lacking or a place where it is used well.
10. What is the author’s take-home message? That is, what idea/argument is the
author trying to communicate in the paper? Is this take-home message
supported by argument or empirical evidence?
Overall
11. The strongest part of the paper is:
12. The part of the paper that needs the most attention is: