Abstract
Background: The Japanese Society of Health Education and Promotion (JSHEP) conducted a peer review seminar on January 27, 2013 to improve the quality of communication between authors and reviewers. The aim of this paper is to report the content of the discussions that took place during group work.
Contents: Seventy-seven authors and review board members participated in this seminar and its group work. Participants were divided into 10 groups - five themes (i.e., “Abstract and Introduction”, “Method(s)”, “Result(s) and Tables/Figures”, “Discussion” and “Field Reports”, each composed of two groups. Then, they discussed their experiences in communication with reviewers and editorial board members for one hour. After the group work, they presented the main points of their discussions, and editorial board members provided comments on the presentations. During this seminar, the participants enhanced their understanding of the peer review system and the attitudes of the editorial board members. Moreover, editorial board members clarified certain issues, such as the setting of writing guidelines for qualitative research papers and the handling of “field reports” as original research papers, and so on.
Conclusion: This seminar deepened the mutual understanding between the attending authors and editorial board members. Further improvements in peer review communication are expected by the JSHEP.
