First Read: A Holistic Review

This module will provide some pointers for conducting an initial review of the manuscript.

The first read should be a rather quick read of the article which should provide you with a sense of if the article is a good fit for the journal.

This level looks at the actual research and content of the manuscript.

If global review of the manuscript is mostly favorable, then invest a bit of time in the more detailed revisions. These detailed revisions then help the author improve the draft.

Some questions to consider as you review:

• Is this research interesting and original?
• Does this work contribute new information to the field?
• Does this article fit within the aims and scope of the journal?
• Would others in the discipline find value in the work?
• Does the author adequately situate their work in the existing literature?
• Is the methodology clear and appropriate?
• Are the results clear and well-organized?

Also consider asking and recording any questions that come to you as a reader as you review the article. If you are reading with intention and walk away unclear on some aspect of the manuscript, it will certainly be even less clear to a reader who is just opening the article to glean some basic information on the topic. Your questions often open up blind spots that authors may have about their own research.

Ideally this holistic feedback would become a paragraph or two at the beginning of your review. If upon first review the manuscript seems appropriate to the journal and worthy of more time, even if not perfect, then a second more detailed review should be conducted. This is the focus of our next module.