Peer Review Week brings together researchers, publishers, editors, and academic institutions to celebrate the value of peer review in producing quality scholarship. This year’s theme, “Innovation and Technology in Peer Review,” serves as a reminder that although AI-powered tools are entering discussions around the peer review process, the value of thoughtful, human-driven feedback remains key. In honor of this theme, we asked some of Penn Press’ newest journals about what makes peer reviewers so uniquely valuable to the publishing process:
“Reviewers play an invaluable role in the life of academic journals and the advancement of scholarly research. At Foucault Studies, we are incredibly grateful to all the wonderful scholars who, throughout the years, generously volunteered their time and expertise to help editors make informed decisions and authors improve their work.
—Daniele Lorenzini and Sverre Raffnsøe, editors of Foucault Studies, a journal dedicated to the French historian and philosopher Michael Foucault.
“Peer reviewers provide an invaluable service to any academic journal. This is doubly true for a new journal such as Global Black Thought. Their efforts are integral to making sure the best, and most cutting-edge, work on Black intellectual history is given a wonderful space in which to breathe.”
—Editor Keisha N. Blain and managing editor Robert Greene II of Global Black Thought, a journal about the Black intellectual tradition launching in 2025
“The intellectual integrity of any journal is always in the end a labor of love, collegiality, and shared mission. Especially for a new journal such as Pasados, our peer reviewers are partners in this mission. Because of them, we are able to feature proudly the work of our scholars.”
—José Aranda, John Alba Cutler, Carmen Lamas, and Yolanda Padilla, editors of Pasados, a journal focusing on Latinx cultural pasts.
“History of Social Science is grateful to its referees, whose judgment is crucial to determining whether papers are up to the very best standards in the field and whose fair assessment of papers helps the editors ascertain that papers make an important and original contribution to the history of social science. Through their detailed, informed and constructive comments, referees help potential authors undertake significant revisions they might not have even contemplated. In the process, they help the journal turn potential into performance.”
—Jamie Cohen-Cole, Philippe Fontaine, and Jefferson Pooley, editors of History of Social Science, a journal detailing the transformations of the social sciences since the early twentieth century.
Across our journal list, peer reviewers play an integral role in the publishing process. Thank you to the many individuals who conduct peer review for Penn Press and strengthen our collective scholarly endeavors.
