Am Fam Physician. 2016;93(7):544-545
Author disclosure: No relevant financial affiliations.
Although some editors, authors, and readers have questioned 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 reviewers 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 physician 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 credits 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 anonymous 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 (https://www.aafp.org/journals/afp/reviewers/guide.html) and complete a 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. Middleton, 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 organizations 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 wonderful reviewers!
editor's note: Dr. Siwek is editor of AFP.
| Jennifer Abeles, DO | Ian H. de Boer, MD, MS | Chris Keenan, MD, MPH | Kalyanakrishnan Ramakrishnan, MD |
| Stoney A. Abercrombie, MD | Craig Derkay, MD | Robert B. Kelly, MD, MS | Archana Ramaswamy, MD |
| Fredrick M. Abrahamian, DO | Lara Devgan, MD, MPH | Niharika Khanna, MD | Andrea Rapkin, MD |
| Curtis N. Adams, MD | Gretchen Dickson, MD, MBA | Jennifer Kim, MD | Gary A. Ratkin, MD |
| Stephen M. Adams, MD | Jill Dietz, MD | Jonathan M. Kline, PharmD | Gail Reid, MD |
| Kehinde Adekola, MD | Joel Dimsdale, MD | Charles Kodner, MD | Matthew Rensberry, MD |
| Ross Albert, MD, PhD | Christopher Discolo, MD | Milind J. Kothari, DO | Caitlyn M. Rerucha, MD |
| Chelley K. Alexander, MD | John Dorsch, MD | Tony Kuo, MD, MSHS | J. Marc Rhoads, MD |
| Maria Alkureishi, MD | Leigh Eck, MD | Kelly Latimer, MD, MPH, FAAFP | Robert Rich, MD |
| Jennifer Amengual, MD | E. J. Edelman, MD | Kim Edward LeBlanc, MD, PhD | James M. Roberts, MD |
| Shilpa H. Amin, MD, MBSc | Jama G. Edwards, MD | Andrew G. Lee, MD | Alan L. Robin, MD |
| Eric L. Anderson, MD* | David R. Ellington, MD | Daniel Lee, MD | Phillip Rodgers, MD |
| Tamika Auguste, MD | John W. Ely, MD | Alexander K.C. Leung, MD, MBBS | Michelle A. Roett, MD, MPH, FAAFP* |
| I. Cori Baill, MD | Sean C. Engel, MD | Glenn Levine, MD | Jacqueline M. Ruplinger, MD |
| Robert A. Baldor, MD | Kehinde Eniola, MD* | Lawrence A. Liebscher, MD | Matthew Rutman, MD |
| Thomas Ball, MD | Julia Fashner, MD | Kenneth W. Lin, MD, MPH | Mandakini Sadhir, MD |
| David B. Banach, MD, MPH, MS | Kristopher Fayock, MD | Richard S. Lucidi, MD, FACOG | Robert B. Saper, MD, MPH |
| Jimmy Belotte, MD | Gene Feder, MD | John Maa, MD | Margot Savoy, MD |
| Carol J. Bennett, MD | Thomas Fekete, MD | Sohil Makwana, MD, MPH | Gregory Sawin, MD, MPH |
| Jeffrey S. Berman, MD | Edward R. Feller, MD | John Malaty, MD* | Andrew J. Saxon, MD |
| Rajib K. Bhattacharya, MD | David A. Fiellin, MD | Shlomo Mandel, MD, MPH | Andreas Schmid, MD |
| Amit Bhavsar, MD* | Jennifer Frank, MD | Katherine Margo, MD | Kamaljit Sethi, MD |
| Matt T. Bianchi, MD, PhD | Joel E. Gallant, MD, MPH | Janelle M. Marra, DO | Ashish Shah, MD |
| Brett Bilbrey, MD | Frederick B. Gaupp, MD, FAAFP | Caroline B. Marshall, MD | Alan Shahtaji, DO* |
| Michael A. Bloch, MD, MS | Christopher D. Gelston, MD | Dan Merenstein, MD | Howard Sharp, MD |
| Mark J. Bolland, PhD | F. John Gennari, MD | John Messmer, MD* | Victoria J. Sharp, MD, MBA |
| Anne S. Boyd, MD, FAAFP, FACSM | Julie P. Gentile, MD | Jennifer Middleton, MD, MPH* | Daniel Shoskes, MD |
| Melissa K. Bradner, MD | Peter Gerbino, MD | William M. Miles, MD | Jagdish Shukla, MD |
| John Brancato, MD | Rahel Ghebre, MD, MS | Suzanne Minor, MD | Randa Sifri, MD |
| Mary M. Bridgeman, PharmD | Pierre Giglio, MD | Jonathan Morrow, MD, PhD | Bruce Sigsbee, MD, FAAN |
| Haywood L. Brown, MD | Jason P. Gilleran, MD | Darlene Moyer, MD | Vijay Singh, MD, MPH, MS |
| John L. Brusch, MD | Deborah Glassman, MD | David G. Mutch, MD | Dustin K. Smith, DO |
| Edward Buchanan, MD | Allan M. Goldstein, MD | Amanda Myers, MD | Matthew Snyder, DO |
| Christopher W. Bunt, MD | David Goldstein, MD | Kundandeep Nagi, MD | Lisa Soldat, MD |
| William M. Burke, MD | Jocelyn Gravlee, MD | Arwa Nasir, MD | Paul Stein, MD* |
| Erwin T. Cabacungan, MD, MPH | Aaron D. Greenblatt, MD | Konrad C. Nau, MD | J. Herbert Stevenson, MD |
| James F. Calvert, MD | Shamai Grossman, MD | Eddie Needham, MD, FAAFP | Joshua Storey, DO* |
| Pamela A. Camosy, MD | Mary J. Groves, MD, FAAFP | David Newman-Toker, MD, PhD | Eliza L. Sutton, MD |
| Elisabeth M. Carr, MD* | Karen E. Hall, MD | Alan G. Nyitray, PhD | Michelle Szczepanik, MD |
| Kitty Carter-Wicker, MD | Jaesu Han, MD | Toshimasa Okabe, MD | Jeanette Tetrault, MD, FACP |
| Sarah L. Cartwright, MD* | Natasha Harrison, MD, MPP | David Orsinelli, MD | Seema Tirlapur, BSc, MBChB |
| Anil Chacko, PhD | Sally Haskell, MD | Alex Ortega-Loayza, MD | Aley E. Tohamy, MD |
| Kwan-Leung Chan, MD, FRCP | Peggy B. Hasley, MD | Pasquale Palumbo, MD | Richard P. Usatine, MD |
| Richard Chan, MBBS, FRCP, FRCPC | James Haynes, MD* | Sandesh Parajuli, MBBS | Belinda A. Vail, MD |
| Arjun B. Chatterjee, MD, MS | Gregory W. Heath, DHSc, MPH | Andrew Pasternak, MD | Richard W. Waguespack, MD |
| Craig J. Chaya, MD | Nikhil Hemady, MD | Dinesh Patel, MD, FACS | Harneet Walia, MD |
| Ping-Hsin Chen, PhD | David A. Hill, MD | Anu Paul, MBBS | Terri Warren, RN, ANP |
| John Chico, MD | Michael F. Holick, MD | David Peck, MD | Barry D. Weiss, MD |
| Marc A. Childress, MD | Joyce C. Hollander-Rodriguez, MD | James Phalen, MD | Dennis Wen, MD |
| Mei Chung, PhD, MPH | Richard Holloway, PhD | Heather R. Pickett, DO | Erin Westfall, DO* |
| Katherine Cocker, DO | Robert Hudak, MD | Craig E. Pollack, MD | Randall K. Wexler, MD |
| Aaron A. Cohen-Gadol, MD, MSc | Rose Anne Illes, PhD | Donald Pompan, MD | Tammy Wichman, MD |
| Sarah Z. Cole, DO | Susumu Inoue, MD | Jacquelyn M. Powers, MD | Tongyu C. Wikramanayake, PhD |
| Nancy Collop, MD | Allan S. Jaffe, MD | David Z. Prince, MD | Jason Wilbur, MD |
| Kurt Cook, MD* | Paula James, MD, FRCPC | Jordan M. Prutkin, MD, MHS | Robert Wilfahrt, MD |
| Julia Craner, PhD | Beverly K. Johnson, MD | J. Todd Purves, MD | Joanne Wilkinson, MD |
| Paul Crawford, MD | Richard Josephson, MD | Lee Radosh, MD | Mozella Williams, MD* |
| Paul Dassow, MD | Leila Kahwati, MD, MPH | Melanie Raffoul, MD | David Winchester, MD |
| Amanda Davis, MD | Erin Kavanaugh, MD | Anita Rajasekhar, MD | Johnnie Yates, MD |
| Benjamin Zaniello, MD* |
