[Journal] Reviewers assigned

[Thierry Badard]

Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) a écrit :
> I have went through all the articles and ensured that they now have 
> reviewers (one is waiting for an update first).  I see only one editor 
> had done this already - could the others let me know if the process is 
> too confusing for you to select reviewers?  I've given them until 
> 27-mar-09 to complete the reviews.
> 
> Reviewers - let me know if the process is unclear to you - you should 
> have received an email inviting you to review.
> 
> Best wishes,
> Tyler

Hi Tyler and others,

The process is fine for me. I have received the review request. I have 
accepted it (an email was sent to the editor) and I have downloaded the 
paper. All works fine and is relatively simple and easy.

Nevertheless, I have a question ... Is there a document (I do not succed 
in finding such a document yet) that specifies what kind of review is 
expected? At present, the review form is composed of only two fields 
that enable the submission of comments both to the authors and to the 
editor but nothing specifies precisely which aspects of the paper must 
be assessed. I am reviewer for several international conferences and 
journals and the review criteria generally differ from one journal to 
another, from one conference to another. So I am wondering what are the 
points we have to assess for the OSGeo Journal. Do we have to produce a 
deep scientific evaluation of the paper or only provide the authors with 
some general comments and advices to strenghten their paper so that they 
submit a final version which is globally acceptable for publication in 
the Journal?

I am wondering if the set up of an enhanced version of the review form 
or the specification of commonly accepted criteria could help in this 
task? For instance, for some journals or conference, we used to assess 
the following points:

- Scientific or technical quality
- Evaluation of work impact and contribution
- Originality and novelty of the subject
- Meaningful objectives or hypotheses presented
- Relevance to the topics of interest of the journal
- Title is accurate and concise
- Paper is clear and concise
- Introduction gives overview of problem in context
- Objectives are clearly stated
- Conclusions are clearly stated
- References are complete and accurate
- Figures / captions / tables are of good quality and complete
- English quality

Each point is not necessarly relevant for the OSGeo Journal and some are 
maybe lacking but this list could be a first proposal to refine. Each 
point could be evaluated by a 1 to 5 mark (1= poor, 5 = excellent), 
hence comments provided to the authors must detail the reasons of each 
mark and clearly explain the weakness of the paper and ways of 
improvment. I think it will help in structuring the review and help in 
reviewing/assessing the different papers in an equal manner among all 
the reviewers.

With the overall recommendation, I will also be interested in adding a 
field wich allows to specify the deegree of confidence the reviewer has 
in his/her assessment. It should help the editor in processing reviews 
where two or more reviewers are contradictory.

My 2 cents.

Th.

-- 
Prof. Thierry Badard, Ph.D.
____________________________________________________________

Professeur au Département des sciences géomatiques
(http://www.scg.ulaval.ca)
Chercheur régulier au Centre de Recherche en Géomatique
(http://www.crg.ulaval.ca)
Chercheur régulier du Réseau de Centres d'Excellence GEOIDE
(http://www.geoide.ulaval.ca)
Chercheur collaborateur de la chaire de recherche
industrielle en base de données géospatiales décisionnelles
(http://mdspatialdb.chair.scg.ulaval.ca)
Responsable du projet de formation sur les normes
internationales en géomatique
(http://standards.scg.ulaval.ca)
Administrateur des projets open source GeOxygene et GeoKettle
(http://oxygene-project.sourceforge.net &
  http://www.geokettle.org)
Membre votant de la fondation OSGeo
(http://www.osgeo.org)

Département des sciences géomatiques
Faculté de foresterie et de géomatique
Pavillon Louis-Jacques Casault
1055, avenue du Séminaire
Local 1343
Université Laval
Québec (Québec) G1V 0A6
Canada

Tél.: +1.418.656-7116 - Fax: +1.418.656-7411
Courriel : Thierry.Badard at scg.ulaval.ca
Web: http://geosoa.scg.ulaval.ca
____________________________________________________________

*AVERTISSEMENT*

Avis relatif à la confidentialité
Notice of confidentiality
Advertencia de confidencialidad
http://www.rec.ulaval.ca/lce/securite/confidentialite.htm