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Learn about the crucial role of a referee in evaluating research papers for publication and ensuring the quality and significance of the work. Understand what makes a paper publishable and the responsibilities of a good referee. Gain insights into providing constructive feedback and recommendations for authors.
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The Task of the Referee Arnon Rungsawang fenganr@ku.ac.th Massive Information & Knowledge Engineering COmputer and Network SYstem Laboratory Department of Computer Engineering Faculty of Engineering Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Referee’s Task • Evaluate in a timely manner a paper for publication in a specific journal or conference proceedings. • Determine whether • The work presented is correct, • The problem studied and the results obtained are new and significant, • The quality of the presentation is satisfactory or can be made so, • What revisions and changes to the paper are necessary and/or desirable.
What is Publishable Paper? • A paper is publishable if it makes a sufficient contribution. • A contribution is • New and interesting research results, • New and insightful synthesis of existing results, • A useful survey of or tutorial on a field, • A combination of above.
Publishable Paper may be… • A paper which merely confirms previously published results by different researcher, using different data, if previously published result is important enough to require confirmation. • The role of the referee is to provide an opinion as to whether the paper makes such a sufficient contribution.
Publishable or not… • Small results which are surprising and might spark new research should be published. • Papers which are mostly repetitions of other papers should not be published. • Papers which have good ideasbadly expressed should not be published, HOWEVER the authors should be encouraged to rewrite them in a better more comprehensive fashion.
Two Major Components of a Referee Report • Recommend acceptance or reject a publication: • Equivocal acceptance should provide with adequate discussion for guiding the editor or program committee. • Reject if the paper does not contain some publishable research, or the referee can suggest another place to publish in case of inappropriate to the discussed forum. • Recommend change or revise: • Suggest change or revision that might permit the paper to be published elsewhere, or after resubmission.
Overly Permissive Referee • Everything will be published. • Poor research is encouraged. • Recognition or honors are given to those who don’t deserve it. • Naïve and inexperienced reader is misled. • Author is misled as to what is publishable. • Disrespect for field is encouraged. • …
Overly Restrictive Referee • Block good research from, or causes it to be delayed in publication. • Waste the time of authors and damages their career. • Perhaps leave journals with nothing to publish, and conferences wit nothing to present. • …
A Good Referee… • Be in a middle of overly permissive and overly restrictive. • Be able to distinguish: • Good from bad work. • Major from minor, from negative contributions to the literature. • A referee who always says YES or always says NO is not helpful.
A Referee Report… • State very briefly his recommendation and reasons for it. • Summarize the point of paper in 1-5 sentences, both for use of the editor or to ensure that the referee actually understand the point of the paper. • Evaluate the goal of the work both with respect to its validity and to its significance. • Evaluate the quality of work (methodology, techniques, accuracy, errors, presentation).
A Referee Report… (continue) • Provide overall recommendation as to publication. • Contain enough discussion and information to justify the recommendation. • If the recommendation is negative, be clear at what point why the paper is rejected. • Equivocal (“maybe”) recommendation is acceptable if the reasons for it are clearly documented.
Questions and Answer fenganr@ku.ac.th