JBJS is pleased once again to highlight our Elite Reviewers. The Elite Reviewers Program recognizes our best reviewers for their outstanding efforts. All JBJS reviewers help us maintain the highest standards for quality orthopaedic publishing.
Name:
Thomas J. Blumenfeld, MD
Affiliation:
Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
Years in practice:
25
How did you begin reviewing for other journals and for JBJS in particular?
I met one of the JBJS Deputy Editors at a course and I asked how one became a reviewer. We discussed this and I was offered the opportunity. I now review for 5 journals and enjoy the process as much today as I did then.
What is your top piece of advice for those reviewers who aspire to reach Elite status?
No author spends dedicated hours to submit a manuscript to be told by a reviewer that their manuscript is unsuitable. The reviewer must base their review on fundamentals: What hypothesis is being examined? How was the scientific data gathered? What statistical analysis was performed? What were the results? And what synthesis of these results with prior published results was performed? In doing so, the reviewer indicates that they understand the prior context to the scientific inquiry, understand what the author(s) were trying to investigate, and can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript. Regardless of reviewer decision (accept, revise, reject), the review should offer ways to improve the manuscript. Top advice: Respect the author(s) and respond accordingly.
Aside from orthopaedic manuscripts, what have you been reading lately?
I traverse a spectrum from history to science to current issues to mystery to self-improvement. So, the last five books I read were Bone Rooms by Samuel J. Redman, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson, When Einstein Walked with Gödel by Jim Holt, and The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
Learn more about the JBJS Elite Reviewers program.