JBJS is helping celebrate Peer Review Week 2017 by formally recognizing some of its top reviewers for their contributions. Each day during Peer Review Week 2017, JBJS will profile six different top reviewers on OrthoBuzz each morning and afternoon. This morning, let’s meet Benjamin “Kyle” Potter, Steve Elder, David H. Kim.
Benjamin “Kyle” Potter, MD
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
What do you like best about reviewing for JBJS?
It gives me a sneak peek at some of what is coming in the Journal and forces me to really examine the article I am reviewing, and as a consequence other articles, with a more discerning and intellectually inquiring eye.
How do you find time to review for JBJS?
I have no idea – we’re surgeons, we make time. Seriously, while the cumulative time to do a good review can be onerous, it is not that difficult to read an article in whole or part, take some notes, and then write/dictate/transcribe the longer review later when you have some more time. So breaking it up helps, makes it more feasible and I think actually results in a better review than just cranking it out all at once, because you have some time to let the paper marinate.
What do you see as JBJS‘ role in shaping the future of orthopaedics?
I think the quality and focus of the content of our top journals like JBJS have a critical role in shaping how quickly and broadly new techniques or findings are adopted, and can further shape the emphasis of future research and practice changes in response to these same articles.
Steve Elder, MD
Mississippi State University
What do you like best about reviewing for JBJS?
I like the process. Blinding the authors’ identity to reviewers is a practice that I wish other journals would adopt. I also appreciate being notified of the editor’s decision and then being granted access to the comments of the other reviewers. I like to think reading their critiques helps me improve my own in the future.
How do you find time to review for JBJS?
I break it down into multiple short sessions. A careful readthrough of the entire manuscript taking notes during as many short bursts as my schedule will allow, followed by several periods where I mull it over and crystallize my opinion (e.g. while walking to and from meetings across campus), and then a furious bout of writing.
What do you see as JBJS‘ role in shaping the future of orthopaedics?
I believe in evidence-based medicine, and I see JBJS as a major source of the evidence on which I hope clinicians are basing decisions about treatment. I would also look to JBJS for the most promising experimental approaches.
David H. Kim, MD
New England Baptist Hospital
What do you like best about reviewing for JBJS?
Getting first access to the highest quality and most cutting edge orthopaedic research papers.
How do you find time to review for JBJS?
I dedicate every Wednesday afternoon to research and performing peer-review.
What do you see as JBJS‘ role in shaping the future of orthopaedics?
JBJS plays a critical role in screening and assessing all new scientific and technical developments in orthopaedics to make sure that its readership is exposed to only the highest-quality studies and most promising new advances.
