Peer review

All OSU-authored OER textbooks will go through a peer review process. If you are adopting or adapting, your work will not go through peer review. Peer review is an important step in the quality assurance of our publications.

Steps in the peer review process

Your work will undergo two levels of single-blind peer review.

1. Your table of contents will be sent out for peer review
2. Your draft manuscript will be sent out for peer review

Your book’s table of contents and an abstract must be sent out for peer review. The abstract is to help give the peer reviewers context, and the table of contents will give them the outline structure of your work.

Table of contents and abstract

1. Submit the abstract and table of contents to the unit at the time specified in your MOU.
2. The unit will send these documents to the peer reviewers. You may also wish to send your content to colleagues for feedback.
3. The peer reviewers will have about one month to return the documents with comments. The OERU will summarize the comments and send them to you.
4. This is a single-blind peer review process. Your manuscript will be anonymized, but it will be possible for a peer reviewer to discover your identity with a bit of internet sleuthing. We will do everything we can to make sure you remain as anonymous as possible.
5. The author/editor is responsible for updating and changing the table of contents and abstract based on the peer reviewers feedback.

Draft manuscript

1. Submit your revised table of content and abstract to the unit by the deadline specified in the MOU.
2. Submit your draft manuscript by the deadline specified in the MOU. Please make sure that this manuscript is as complete as possible. Follow the formatting basics.
3. The OERU will send your manuscript out to 2-3 external peer reviewers. You will be asked to suggest some names, and the unit may also choose some external peer reviewers.
4. This is a single-blind peer review process. Your manuscript will be anonymized, but it will be possible for a peer reviewer to discover your identity with a bit of internet sleuthing. We will do everything we can to make sure you remain as anonymous as possible.
5. Peer review usually takes 6-8 weeks, depending on the length of the manuscript.
6. The OERU will compile the peer reviewers’ feedback for you to incorporate into your manuscript. You will then have a specified amount of time to submit your final manuscript to the unit for copy editing and final publication.

Peer reviewers may choose to be acknowledged in your final OER textbook. The unit will take care of adding these names to your Pressbook.