Biomedical Materials: 2016 Reviewer Awards
Reviewer of the Year: Dr Elke Vorndran, University of Würzburg, Germany
For Dr Elke Vorndran, Biomedical Materials perfectly fits her field of expertise and day-to-day research. Internationally recognized, the journal features articles on biomaterial research with a high impact factor. One paper she recently enjoyed considered the in vivo performance of additive manufactured bone implants, an area of great interest to her: Evaluation of 3D printed PCL/PLGA/-TCP versus collagen membranes for guided bone regeneration in a beagle implant model.
Dr Vorndran finds reviewing rewarding for two main reasons: it enables her to be at the forefront of new developments in her field and she gains much satisfaction from helping authors to improve their papers.
Besides novelty and significance, Dr Vorndran looks for a number of elements in a manuscript: clear introductions, suitable applied methods, convincing results and new knowledge. It is also important that the experiments can be replicated, and that the authors discuss their results in the context of the current literature.
In terms of the peer review process overall, Dr Vorndran feels that a double-anonymous approach would help alleviate bias. She also advocates sharing reports to encourage a fair and polite service, and to help inexperienced reviewers.
Dr Vorndran congratulates all novices who have been invited to review, saying this demonstrates that they are valued as an expert in their field. She strongly recommends that first-time reviewers keep within their sphere of knowledge and ensure editors are aware of this.
Outstanding Reviewers:
- Dr Henrique Almeida, University of Dublin Trinity College, Ireland
- Professor Qing Cai, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China
- Dr Víctor Carriel, University of Granada, Spain
- Dr Virginie Dumas, Université de Lyon, France
- Dr Adam Ekenseair, Northeastern University, United States
- Dr Aaron Goldstein, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, United States
- Professor Nesrin Hasırcı, Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi, Turkey
- Dr Kyobum Kim, Incheon National University, Republic of Korea
- Dr Dale Marecak, Queen’s University, Canada
- Dr Samuel Murray, VA Research Foundation, United States
- Dr Teresa Russo, CNR Naples, Italy
- Professor Shanfeng Wang, University of Tennessee, United States
- Professor Xiaoping Yang, Bejing University of Chemical Technology, China
- Dr Azizeh-Mitra Yousefi, Miami University, United States