SOS9032 ¨C Peer-reviewing and getting published in international journals

Course content

This course is a writing course in the peer-review process building on the course SV9107 - International publishing, but here we focus more on sociology and extensive practical writing exercises in the peer-review process. Each student will write several peer-reviews and response to peer-reviews of own work to practice how to give academic critique and how to respond to critique of own work,? From writing peer-reviews and responses to peer-reviews, the students will learn about the peer-review process and strategies for how to get published in international journals. From learning about peer-reviewing, the student will better critically evaluate their own work and understand what is needed to improve their manuscript.?

The course content of three main parts: 1) writing peer-reviews, 2) responding to peer-reviews and evaluation how to utilize peer-reviews to improve manuscripts, 3) improve own manuscripts. In the first part, the students will act as reviewers of two manuscripts from their fellow students as well as for their own work. In the second part, the students will, in groups, discuss how to utilize peer-reviews to improve manuscripts and write responses to the reviews. In the third part revise and improve their manuscripts based on tools and strategies discussed in the course.

Each student will bring a manuscript to the course. The manuscript will be peer-reviewed from fellow students throughout the course and the students will response to the reviews and improve their manuscript. The course is relevant for students writing both articles and a monograph.

Course leader and lecturer: Trude Lappeg?rd is a professor at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography. She holds a PhD in sociology from 2006. She has published numerous articles in international journals and is the editor-in-chief in European Journal of Population.

Lecturer:?Solveig Topstad Borgen is post-doc at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography. She holds a PhD in sociology from 2022 and has valuable experience in publishing in international journals.

Learning outcome

The students will learn how to

• Write peer-review
• Conduct and respond to formal peer-review
• Critically evaluate own work
• Make a plan to improve own work

Admission to the course

This course is exclusively for PhD candidates in Social Sciences at the University of Oslo. PhD students at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography register for the course in?StudentWeb. Interested participants outside the Department of Sociology and Human Geography shall fill out this application form.

The deadline for registration is?four weeks prior the course.?After the deadline shall all applicants receive a note about if?the application is approved.

Teaching

The teaching will involve a combination of lectures, discussions, and work in groups.

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Obligatory activities

• Submit a manuscript of your own work before the course starts
• Read the assigned literature in advance
• Participate actively in discussions during the course
• Write two peer-reviews of fellow students¡¯ manuscript and one peer-review of own manuscript during the course
• Write a response to the peer-reviews during the course
• Submit a revised manuscript during the course

Examination

The entire four-day course makes up the PhD course, with the equivalent of 5 credits. For approval you need to be an active participant throughout the course, be present on all days,?read the curriculum, as well as prepare and conduct the following:

• Three mandatory peer-reviews (minimum 800 words per peer-review) (before Day 2)
• Response to the peer-reviews (minimum 1500 words in total) (before Day 4)
• Submission of revised manuscript (before Day 4)

Examination support material

All exam support materials are allowed during this exam. Generating all or part of the exam answer using AI tools such as Chat GPT or similar is not allowed.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.