CSTEP peer review session
- 1. Research Quality: Approaches, Outreach, and Impact February 18 – 20, 2015 Istanbul, Turkey The Making of Aditi-A Publisher’s Point of View
- 2. Key Objectives • Peer Review • Specific Challenges • Sharing Experiences • Story of Aditi • Summary
- 3. Peer Review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to the producers of the work (peers) Wikipedia • Practice began sometime after World War • Mid-19th century-casual referring by individuals • Note: The 1st recorded editorial pre-publication peer review process was at the Royal Society of London in 1665 • 20th century - process was institutionalised by Biomedical journals Goal is to: • Assess quality • Ensure that the piece is deemed appropriate for publication • Ensure that the piece has undergone systematically pre-defined review process
- 4. Challenges General • Few members review • Gender bias • Long time • Huge data • Time frame Specific • Identifying authors • Topics • Visualisation • Coordination • Not meeting goals For example, Survey experience
- 5. Story of Aditi Aditi (Boundless Knowledge) was conceived as an ongoing platform to continue to discuss topics which were of common interest to the Think Tank communities Thank you IDRC for helping us kick-start Aditi Objectives • Strengthen policy research discipline • Highlight the importance of policy research • Improve the perception of TTs amongst the various stakeholders • Share voice ideas, thoughts, success stories, learnings Topics • Funding • Human resources • Research capacity • Institutional issues of policy research
- 6. Aditi Phase 1 We met with the objectives and this is what we published
- 7. Aditi Phase 1 Feedback The maiden issue has come out well. Congratulation! Dr. Arunachalam, CSTEP, 19 March 2014 Congratulations Annapoorna and the team at CSTEP for the publication of this inaugural issue, very aptly named as Aditi. It reads excellent, and with the rich diversity of topics contained, including survey results, it makes a great reading. Many thanks for this wonderful effort and I look forward to seeing Aditi get established as a regular reminder to stakeholders of the roles and issues in the world of TTs! Best regards, and thanks for sharing an advance copy Dr. Samar Verma, 21 March 2014 Dear Annapoorna, Congratulations! The issue has come out very well. It’s got a good combination of articles from diverse sources and great idea to have contribution from Latin American think tanks. The one liners "In a lighter vein" are very nice :) Congratulations to you, Arushi and Bhawna! Dr. Anshu Bharadwaj, CSTEP, July 11, 2014 This looks great, I was wondering whether you would like to share your newsletter through the PEC programme learning platform (Research to Action: http://www.researchtoaction.org/)? Siobhan Duvigneau, IDS, UK, March 26, 2014 Thank you both for sharing the first issue of Aditi! There are so many great articles included, I’m thinking through ways that TTI can showcase some of the featured stories on the TTI website. Would your writers be comfortable having these articles profiled elsewhere or is the agreement that the bulletin content be for exclusive publishing in the bulletin? I am open to suggestions or limitations but feel there are stories worth sharing with think tanks in LA and Africa too! Julie Lafrance, IDRC Canada, March 26, 2014
- 8. Publisher’s Perspective As a publisher, we took up Aditi as a project – Initiated: Identified purpose, focus and audience – Planned: started putting down ideas, contact people, identify appropriate topics, build a survey – Executed: • Design- visual appeal has become an important aspect and requires a very focused and meaningful (user-centered design) – Monitored and Controlled • Review Process • Follow up – Published •
- 9. Aditi Phase 2 Based on the feedback received and our experiences, CSTEP decided to continue with the publication of Aditi • Similar objectives • Focused on crucial broad themes • Identified sections that could be included • Communicated to likely contributors • Set the ball rolling
- 10. Aditi Phase 2 • This platform has allowed us to go on to a global platform • We have initiated contacts with South African, Latin American Think Tanks and organisations • We are negotiating cross-postings to reach a wider audience
- 11. Aditi Phase 2