The manuscript reviewing process: Empirical research on review requests, review sequences, and decision rules in peer review

In peer review research, no study has been performed to date that has opened the “black box” of manuscript reviewing and dealt with the internal mechanisms of the process. Using as an example the peer review system of Angewandte Chemie International Edition (AC-IE), this study investigates which review requests are assigned by the editors to external reviewers, which sequences of review steps typically occur, and which rules are used by the...