There will be many informal opportunities for peer interaction in the exam-dissertation sequence, in the form of online community discussions, the student-led online community and the weekly synchronous group advising sessions. We also encourage peer-initiated connections, such as through establishing writing groups or attending virtual or in-person meet-ups.

However, perhaps the most important aspect of the course sequence is the formal peer review process. The peer review process is intended to be a learning and assessment exercise that will strengthen your own work in addition to providing feedback to your peers. Our approach is both traditional and innovative.

For some centuries now, peer review has been the formal process for evaluating and validating scholarly knowledge. This is the basis of scholarly journal and book publishing. Today is also a time of great innovation, spurred by developments in digital media and publishing technologies. For more about our thinking in this area, see Cope, B. & Phillips, A. (eds) (2014). The future of the academic journal, Elsevier.

There may be occasions where a submission aligns with the research interests or knowledge/experience of another student who has not arrived at the same stage in their doctoral journey. We may reach out to you and/or assign you a peer review for a specific work prior to you arriving at that milestone. It is not necessary that you have begun or enrolled in the exam-dissertation sequence/courses to begin the peer review process. Here are some reasons to join early:

* Connect with others who have similar or complementary research interests.
* Help you define or refine your research interests.
* Become familiar with the exam-dissertation process and deliverables.
* Guide you in your elective course selections.
* Learn new content, best practices, and how to critically analyze others’ works.
* Enhance your deliverables associated with your regular LDL courses and the exam-dissertation courses, no matter where you might be in your own journey.

Everyone will be assigned two or three peer reviews per project. Sometimes, the work you are reviewing may be somewhat off topic because another person needs a review and your in queue to be assigned a review, but that is not always a bad thing.

* We expect students to complete at least one peer review prior to completing their own project.
* You are assigned peer reviews to works at all stages in the process. So you may not have completed that specific work yourself yet or you maybe completed it many months ago.

Peer Review Assignment Methodology
Ideally, we will try to arrange two to three reviews for you based on the following criteria, though it may not always work out this neatly!
* At least one reviewer may be someone earlier in the process
* At least one reviewer may be further along in the process
* At least one reviewer may be in a similar stage as you
* At least one reviewer has a similar interest, research topic, or background experience (we do the best we can on this one)

We ask for timeliness in completing reviews in order for authors to be able to continue progressing to the next step. We typically set the deadline to be 6 to 10 days, but if you need 14 days, just let us know. CGScholar will show the deadline as about 6 days, and authors will receive a “revision request” at that time, but we ask authors to wait the 14 days (or until all three reviews have come in. If all three have not come in by the 14 days, check with the TA so that we can follow up with your reviewers again to confirm if/when they plan to complete the requirement)

A meaningful peer review should take two to three hours to complete. Refer to the rubric and the guidelines for each milestone when completing the review. A helpful review will speed up the subsequent review and revision processes for the author – so be as honest as possible.

Authors should not submit their revised work until they receive their peer reviews. And authors should carefully consider the peer review feedback and how to apply it.

In addition to the specific requirements of each milestone, the following are PDF versions of the rubrics and checklists to consider as you create your own work and review your peers’ works. Refer also to our overall Process Document and Submission and Review Process.

1. Literature Review (General and Special Field)
2. Theory and Methodology Chapter 3: Parts 1, 2, and 3
3. Preliminary Exam Outline
4. Chapter 4 (Findings and Discussion)
5. Full Dissertation Draft
6. Final Defense Presentation
See also: Thesis Office Resources