Peer review as a researcher in industry and 3 reasons why you should be doing it
A research engineer’s perspective
Despite the shared goal of contributing to the scientific knowledge base, the research ecosystem in the industry is quite different from that in academic research. Corporate researchers have much less to worry about when it comes to funding as long as the research is viable and the work has a decent potential of leading to patents and commercialized solutions.
Why then should an industry researcher bother about participating in peer reviews for academic journals or conferences? After all, most peer reviews are voluntary and unpaid.
Wait… Is peer review unpaid? Really?
In most cases, Yes, if we refer to the monetary compensation. No one gets wealthy by reviewing papers!
Publications in scientific journals and proceedings of conferences are the primary means by which researchers from around the world push the boundary of scientific knowledge and create new opportunities for collaboration. Papers published on these platforms are used to build on top of existing work and to pursue further research. This makes the need for quality control obvious.
To ensure the quality of manuscripts to be selected for publication, editors reach out to fellow researchers or “peers” in the related domain for the review of submissions. These potential reviewers range from grad students to senior academics and researchers in the industry.
Associating monetary benefits for reviewers can easily open up Pandora's box, unleashing conflicts of interest and substandard reviews. For instance, a passive reviewer may just say accept as many review requests as they receive just for the money and end up writing default reviews with undecisive recommendation scores.
Why is research in the industry different from academic research?
Primarily, this arises out of the differences in motivating factors and sources of funding. While academic research work is often funded by grants and provides the flexibility to pursue fundamental research solely for the sake of knowledge, most research topics in the industry are funded by a corporation R&D and focus on applied research, where there is a commercial motivation.
The primary objective of research in the industry is to innovate and conduct research that is novel enough to be patentable as intellectual properties and can be feasibly commercialized as solutions in the market. Some leading companies fund scholars pursuing academic research too, but usually, there is still a common goal where the problem statement is relevant to the business’ long-term plan.
This does not leave much option for researchers employed by the corporations to pursue a hypothesis using corporate R&D funding after it is clear that it does not have much commercial impact even if it may answer a fundamental question relevant to the scientific community. On the same note, peer reviewing for the general scientific community does not often align with direct business interests for most corporations funding the R&D in the industry.
Then, why should you be interested in peer review if you are in the industry?
“Publish or perish” is a common phrase that is somewhat true in academia, irrespective of its merits and demerits. Academic researchers have to publish their research to secure more grants for further work, leading to more papers, and this helps to sustain the constant in-flow of a major source of research funding. On the other hand, industry researchers have huge corporate funding easily accessible to pursue research carrying good commercial incentives. However, even though chances of becoming a billionaire by reviewing papers are slim, there are still good reasons why should start peer reviewing if you aren’t already doing it:
1. To improve your research skills
Once you start analyzing others’ contributions critically, you will be compelled to ask questions like:
- “Why are we doing this?”
- “Okay, this proposal looks reasonable, but how good is it in the most obvious applications?”
- “Shouldn’t we check whether this is adding any value over a certain Proposal B that is already doing the same thing?”
- “This architecture achieves good results, but can we pinpoint which component is doing the real trick?”
Once you start thinking in this direction, it will become second nature while you sit to plan the approach of your next research or to write your own manuscripts. With the correct questions in mind, you can properly address the concerns of other reviewers and readers of your work. Result: Higher chances of paper acceptances!
2. To network with fellow researchers and enhance your visibility in the scientific community
Industry researchers often deal with confidential business secrets and cannot share as much code and data publicly as they may like to. Thus, in most cases, apart from awards and accolades, there is not enough opportunity to get known for your work outside your company in the first few years of your career. Peer review provides a good opportunity for you to interact with external researchers solely based on your skills as a researcher and reviewer. This may also open up new doors for future collaborations and opportunities. You may also end up getting invited to be an Area Chair!
3. To get noticed by your employer/manager
If you are working in an R&D unit, chances are that you are surrounded by colleagues who are publishing papers and filing for patents throughout the year. In such settings, publishing papers and consistent innovation fall within the purview of what is expected from you. How then do you stand out from others and exceed expectations within your role as a research engineer? You guessed it, peer review is one such candidate! Securing invitations from external journals and conferences not only gives you a morale boost but also acknowledges that your work is making an impact in the domain, and the experts are starting to notice. And, once the next invitation lands on your inbox, your leads will notice too!
I am not claiming that this will impact your appraisal ratings, but if you feel that this helps you, you can always treat me to a cup of coffee. 😋
So, I hope this motivates you to start including peer reviews in your career plan. But wait,… how do you get the first invitation? Check out my follow-up post on this very topic!
If you feel this is relevant to you, share this with your friends and colleagues. Would you like to add something, or do you have a different opinion? Let me know in the comments.
