The Importance of Peer Review: Thoughts on Knudson, Morrow, and Thomas (2014)

Knudson, Morrow, and Thomas (2014) recently summarized a number of important issues related to the quality of peer review and current peer-review practice in kinesiology. This writer endorses their six recommendations for improving peer review in kinesiology journals. The purpose of this commentary is to further highlight the importance of reviewer and associate editor recommendations to the editor, and the importance of editor decisions, in determining what becomes part of a discipline's body of knowledge. These recommendations and decisions ultimately affect what students learn, and what professionals practice, in their disciplines. This kind of power over the control of knowledge and the application of that knowledge is cause for all involved in science to do everything possible to improve our stewardship over peer review.