544 American Family Physician www.aafp.org/afp Volume 93, Number 7 ◆ April 1, 2016

Acknowledging and Thanking Our Peer ReviewersJAY SIWEK, MD, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia

Although some editors, authors, and readers have ques-tioned the value of peer review,1 I have no doubt that it improves the articles we publish in American Family Physician (AFP). Our reviewers regularly point out ways to enhance the presentation of information, mention important details to add, and occasionally discover errors that might otherwise mislead readers if not identified.

Reviewers have been part of the fabric of science for decades, yet their work is largely unsung. Most review-ers volunteer their time, working behind the scenes to contribute to the common good. At AFP, we send manuscripts to three external reviewers—two content experts (who may be subspecialists or family physicians) and a family physician representative—to help ensure relevance for our readers. In addition, two family physi-cian medical editors review each manuscript. So, authors generally receive comments from five reviewers, and they

must address each comment during their revision and resubmission. Anyone seeing the before-and-after papers would readily attest that even good manuscripts are improved because of this process.

To assist our reviewers, we have created an online Reviewers’ Guide and developed a set of resources.2 The American Academy of Family Physicians has authorized continuing medical education credit for members who serve as peer reviewers for AFP, at three prescribed cred-its per manuscript, limited to 30 credits per three-year reelection cycle.

For various reasons, it has been a while since we have formally recognized our reviewers in print. Going forward, we plan to give credit to these contributors to excellence regularly, as their names remain anony-mous throughout the review process. We will also start archiving each year’s thank-you list on our website,2 in case any reviewers need documentation of their work for credentialing or other purposes.3-7

If you are interested in becoming a reviewer for AFP, please visit our Reviewers’ Guide (http://www.aafp.org/journals/afp/reviewers/guide.html) and complete a

Editorials

American Family Physician’s Peer Reviewers for 2015

Jennifer Abeles, DOStoney A. Abercrombie, MDFredrick M. Abrahamian, DOCurtis N. Adams, MDStephen M. Adams, MDKehinde Adekola, MDRoss Albert, MD, PhDChelley K. Alexander, MDMaria Alkureishi, MDJennifer Amengual, MDShilpa H. Amin, MD, MBScEric L. Anderson, MD*Tamika Auguste, MDI. Cori Baill, MDRobert A. Baldor, MDThomas Ball, MDDavid B. Banach, MD, MPH, MSJimmy Belotte, MDCarol J. Bennett, MDJeffrey S. Berman, MDRajib K. Bhattacharya, MDAmit Bhavsar, MD*Matt T. Bianchi, MD, PhDBrett Bilbrey, MDMichael A. Bloch, MD, MSMark J. Bolland, PhD

Anne S. Boyd, MD, FAAFP, FACSMMelissa K. Bradner, MDJohn Brancato, MDMary M. Bridgeman, PharmDHaywood L. Brown, MDJohn L. Brusch, MDEdward Buchanan, MDChristopher W. Bunt, MDWilliam M. Burke, MDErwin T. Cabacungan, MD, MPHJames F. Calvert, MDPamela A. Camosy, MDElisabeth M. Carr, MD*Kitty Carter-Wicker, MDSarah L. Cartwright, MD*Anil Chacko, PhDKwan-Leung Chan, MD, FRCPRichard Chan, MBBS, FRCP, FRCPCArjun B. Chatterjee, MD, MSCraig J. Chaya, MDPing-Hsin Chen, PhDJohn Chico, MDMarc A. Childress, MDMei Chung, PhD, MPHKatherine Cocker, DOAaron A. Cohen-Gadol, MD, MSc

Sarah Z. Cole, DONancy Collop, MDKurt Cook, MD*Julia Craner, PhDPaul Crawford, MDPaul Dassow, MDAmanda Davis, MDIan H. de Boer, MD, MSCraig Derkay, MDLara Devgan, MD, MPHGretchen Dickson, MD, MBAJill Dietz, MDJoel Dimsdale, MDChristopher Discolo, MDJohn Dorsch, MDLeigh Eck, MDE. J. Edelman, MDJama G. Edwards, MDDavid R. Ellington, MDJohn W. Ely, MDSean C. Engel, MDKehinde Eniola, MD*Julia Fashner, MDKristopher Fayock, MDGene Feder, MDThomas Fekete, MD

Edward R. Feller, MDDavid A. Fiellin, MDJennifer Frank, MDJoel E. Gallant, MD, MPHFrederick B. Gaupp, MD, FAAFPChristopher D. Gelston, MDF. John Gennari, MDJulie P. Gentile, MDPeter Gerbino, MDRahel Ghebre, MD, MSPierre Giglio, MDJason P. Gilleran, MDDeborah Glassman, MDAllan M. Goldstein, MDDavid Goldstein, MDJocelyn Gravlee, MDAaron D. Greenblatt, MDShamai Grossman, MDMary J. Groves, MD, FAAFPKaren E. Hall, MDJaesu Han, MDNatasha Harrison, MD, MPPSally Haskell, MDPeggy B. Hasley, MDJames Haynes, MD*Gregory W. Heath, DHSc, MPH

continues

Downloaded from the American Family Physician website at www.aafp.org/afp. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Family Physicians. For the private, noncom-mercial use of one individual user of the website. All other rights reserved. Contact copyrights@aafp.org for copyright questions and/or permission requests.

Editorials

April 1, 2016 ◆ Volume 93, Number 7 www.aafp.org/afp American Family Physician 545

reviewer profile, or e-mail us at afpjournal@aafp.org. We rate the quality of each review we receive and reward those who do a good job by inviting them to do more reviews! We usually send two to four requests a year—hopefully a manageable number. Serving as a reviewer can sharpen your writing and critical analysis skills; seeing weaknesses in others’ work helps sensitize you to what to avoid in your own writing and can help carve a path to successful authorship.

Recently, AFP contributing editor Jennifer L. Middle-ton, MD, MPH, wrote about the value of peer review for the AFP Community Blog during the first-ever Peer Review Week, created by a group of science organiza-tions with the goal of supporting and improving the peer review process.8 She expressed her appreciation for all of our reviewers, and now it is time to do that again by name, in print and online. So, on behalf of the entire editorial team at AFP, many thanks to all of our wonder-ful reviewers!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Siwek is editor of AFP.

Address correspondence to Jay Siwek, MD, at siwekj@georgetown.edu. Reprints are not available from the author.

Author disclosure: No relevant financial affiliations.

REFERENCES

1. Smith R. Peer review: a flawed process at the heart of science and journals. J R Soc Med. 2006;99(4):178-182.

2. American Family Physician. Reviewers’ Guide. http://www.aafp.org/journals/afp/reviewers/guide.html. Accessed January 4, 2016.

3. Merriman JA. Peer reviewers help AFP maintain the highest quality. Am Fam Physician. 2011;83(11):1245.

4. Merriman JA. Thank you to the peer reviewers who help ensure the quality of AFP. Am Fam Physician. 2009;80(9):930.

5. Merriman JA. Peer review process ensures accuracy and quality of AFP. Am Fam Physician. 2008;77(7):891.

6. Merriman JA. Peer reviewers help ensure AFP quality. Am Fam Physician. 2007;75(6):785-786.

7. Merriman JA. Peer review ensures continued AFP quality. Am Fam Phy-sician. 2006;73(5):751-752.

8. Middleton JL. American Family Physician Community Blog. Peer review benefits journals, readers, and reviewers #peerrevwk15. September 28, 2015. http://afpjournal.blogspot.com/2015/09/peer-review-benefits-journals-readers.html. Accessed January 4, 2016. ■

American Family Physician’s Peer Reviewers for 2015 (continued)

Nikhil Hemady, MDDavid A. Hill, MDMichael F. Holick, MDJoyce C. Hollander-Rodriguez, MDRichard Holloway, PhDRobert Hudak, MDRose Anne Illes, PhDSusumu Inoue, MDAllan S. Jaffe, MDPaula James, MD, FRCPCBeverly K. Johnson, MDRichard Josephson, MDLeila Kahwati, MD, MPHErin Kavanaugh, MDChris Keenan, MD, MPHRobert B. Kelly, MD, MSNiharika Khanna, MDJennifer Kim, MDJonathan M. Kline, PharmDCharles Kodner, MDMilind J. Kothari, DOTony Kuo, MD, MSHSKelly Latimer, MD, MPH, FAAFPKim Edward LeBlanc, MD, PhDAndrew G. Lee, MDDaniel Lee, MDAlexander K.C. Leung, MD, MBBSGlenn Levine, MDLawrence A. Liebscher, MDKenneth W. Lin, MD, MPHRichard S. Lucidi, MD, FACOGJohn Maa, MDSohil Makwana, MD, MPHJohn Malaty, MD*

Shlomo Mandel, MD, MPHKatherine Margo, MDJanelle M. Marra, DOCaroline B. Marshall, MDDan Merenstein, MDJohn Messmer, MD*Jennifer Middleton, MD, MPH*William M. Miles, MDSuzanne Minor, MDJonathan Morrow, MD, PhDDarlene Moyer, MDDavid G. Mutch, MDAmanda Myers, MDKundandeep Nagi, MDArwa Nasir, MDKonrad C. Nau, MDEddie Needham, MD, FAAFPDavid Newman-Toker, MD, PhDAlan G. Nyitray, PhDToshimasa Okabe, MDDavid Orsinelli, MDAlex Ortega-Loayza, MDPasquale Palumbo, MDSandesh Parajuli, MBBSAndrew Pasternak, MDDinesh Patel, MD, FACSAnu Paul, MBBSDavid Peck, MDJames Phalen, MDHeather R. Pickett, DOCraig E. Pollack, MDDonald Pompan, MDJacquelyn M. Powers, MDDavid Z. Prince, MD

Jordan M. Prutkin, MD, MHSJ. Todd Purves, MDLee Radosh, MDMelanie Raffoul, MDAnita Rajasekhar, MDKalyanakrishnan Ramakrishnan, MDArchana Ramaswamy, MDAndrea Rapkin, MDGary A. Ratkin, MDGail Reid, MDMatthew Rensberry, MDCaitlyn M. Rerucha, MDJ. Marc Rhoads, MDRobert Rich, MDJames M. Roberts, MDAlan L. Robin, MDPhillip Rodgers, MDMichelle A. Roett, MD, MPH, FAAFP*Jacqueline M. Ruplinger, MDMatthew Rutman, MDMandakini Sadhir, MDRobert B. Saper, MD, MPHMargot Savoy, MDGregory Sawin, MD, MPHAndrew J. Saxon, MDAndreas Schmid, MDKamaljit Sethi, MDAshish Shah, MDAlan Shahtaji, DO*Howard Sharp, MDVictoria J. Sharp, MD, MBADaniel Shoskes, MDJagdish Shukla, MDRanda Sifri, MD

Bruce Sigsbee, MD, FAANVijay Singh, MD, MPH, MSDustin K. Smith, DOMatthew Snyder, DOLisa Soldat, MDPaul Stein, MD*J. Herbert Stevenson, MDJoshua Storey, DO*Eliza L. Sutton, MDMichelle Szczepanik, MDJeanette Tetrault, MD, FACPSeema Tirlapur, BSc, MBChBAley E. Tohamy, MDRichard P. Usatine, MDBelinda A. Vail, MDRichard W. Waguespack, MDHarneet Walia, MDTerri Warren, RN, ANPBarry D. Weiss, MDDennis Wen, MDErin Westfall, DO*Randall K. Wexler, MDTammy Wichman, MDTongyu C. Wikramanayake, PhDJason Wilbur, MDRobert Wilfahrt, MDJoanne Wilkinson, MDMozella Williams, MD*David Winchester, MDJohnnie Yates, MDBenjamin Zaniello, MD*

* Person completed more than one review in 2015.