A Checklist for Reviewing a Paper

2 Pages Posted: 21 Dec 2016 Last revised: 10 Sep 2020

See all articles by Jonathan Berk

Jonathan Berk

Stanford Graduate School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Campbell R. Harvey

Duke University - Fuqua School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

David A. Hirshleifer

Marshall School of Business, USC; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: December 21, 2016

Abstract

Despite the crucial importance of high quality reviewing for the scientific process, new scholars often learn how to do this based on casual advice and trial-and-error learning. We offer a checklist that helps referees systematically develop high quality referee reports and avoid some of the common pitfalls, in the spirit of the checklists used with success by surgeons and airplane pilots. The specific format in our checklist is not the only or `best’ one, but we believe it is useful, especially for junior scholars, to have access to at least one effective format laid out in a very specific form. This checklist is based upon ideas in Berk, Harvey and Hirshleifer (2016; 2017).

See our companion papers:
Preparing a Referee Report: Guidelines and Perspectives and
How to Write an Effective Referee Report and Improve the Scientific Review Process.


Keywords: Referee Report, Cover Letter, Conflicts of Interest

JEL Classification: A1, A2, A3, B00, C00, D00, E00, F00, G00, H00, I00, J00, K00, L00, M00, N00, O1, O2, O3, O4, O5, P00

Suggested Citation

Berk, Jonathan B. and Harvey, Campbell R. and Hirshleifer, David A., A Checklist for Reviewing a Paper (December 21, 2016). Duke I&E Research Paper No. 2017-03, Stanford University Graduate School of Business Research Paper No. 17-6, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2887708 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2887708

Jonathan B. Berk

Stanford Graduate School of Business ( email )

655 Knight Way
Stanford, CA 94305-5015
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Campbell R. Harvey (Contact Author)

Duke University - Fuqua School of Business ( email )

Box 90120
Durham, NC 27708-0120
United States
919-660-7768 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.duke.edu/~charvey

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

David A. Hirshleifer

Marshall School of Business, USC ( email )

Marshall School of Business
Los Angeles, CA 90089
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.uci.edu/dhirshle/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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