ABSTRACT
Chapter 7, Gatekeeping and peer review, addresses the publication review process as a gatekeeping mechanism in the production and dissemination of knowledge and focuses on a strand of research within ERPP that has looked at editors and reviewers as key stakeholders in scholarly publication. More specifically, the chapter surveys some of the scholarship that has explored the views and perspectives of editors and reviewers regarding effective writing and publishing. It explores the literature that has examined the characteristics of competent reviewers and good review reports and some of the research that has investigated the experiences of editors and reviewers in the gatekeeping process and their perspectives on their responsibilities. The chapter also deals with the controversial topic of editorial bias, presenting contradictory narratives regarding the existence or non-existence of systematic bias in scholarly publication, especially towards EAL scholars (Hyland, 2016, 2020). Finally, the chapter reviews studies that have analysed the discourse of peer review and the discursive interactions between editors, reviewers, and authors, identifying some of the discursive and linguistic characteristics of the occluded genres of peer review reports and editors’ letters.
