Making scholarship more practice and policy relevant: Analysis of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies’ peer review process and its implications

This project examines the peer review process of a leading Canadian academic journal focused on international development, with the goal to better understand how research knowledge is made accessible and relevant – or not – for policy makers and practitioners. The intern will analyze systematically the texts of submitted articles, comments provided by the scholars asked to evaluate these articles, journal editorial guidelines and the revisions the authors undertake, for evidence of efforts to make research accessible and relevant. He/she will also interview a subset of authors and reviewers for their views on this process. The quantitative and qualitative data collected will suggest new ways this journal and others might encourage high standards of scholarship as well as relevance for policy and practice.

Faculty Supervisor:

Elizabeth Cooper

Student:

Lydia Gitanjali Thiagarajah

Partner:

Canadian Association for the Study of International Development

Discipline:

Anthropology

Sector:

Education

University:

Simon Fraser University