Environmental Research Letters: 2016 Reviewer Awards
Reviewer of the Year: Dr Shannan Sweet, Cornell University, United States
Having had many manuscripts reviewed by others, Dr Shannan Sweet appreciates the time and effort reviewers put in to ensure the research is well presented and comprehensible. For Dr Sweet, refereeing for Environmental Research Letters (ERL) is a way to ‘pay it forward’ and thank all the reviewers who provided her with ‘life-changing’, considered advice.
Dr Sweet values articles that are unique and believable, esteeming quality over quantity and readability over esoteric, ‘intelligent-sounding’ notions. It is important to her that ideas flow and that the author demonstrates advanced subject knowledge. Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming caught Dr Sweet’s attention because of its catchy title and political relevance.
According to Dr Sweet, the benefits of reviewing for ERL are manifold. Not only is it a reputable and broad environmental science journal, reading papers before they have been published means she is one of a select few to hear about an exciting discovery before it is released into the world, and she encourages others to peer review. While her first review took a long time, she has become more adept over time and advises first-time reviewers to read the manuscript in full before looking for small, grammatical errors and then appraising the research as a whole.
The peer review process is vital, Dr Sweet says, because wording and results can easily be misinterpreted without an outside perspective. She is delighted to be named Reviewer of the Year; the award recognizes the importance of this role, which all researchers should endeavour to undertake.
Outstanding Reviewers:
- Dr John Abatzoglou, University of Idaho, United States
- Professor T Mitchell Aide, University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico
- Dr Markus Amann, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria
- Dr Jay Apt, Carnegie-Mellon University, United States
- Dr Sophie Bastin, CNRS/INSU, UVSQ, UPMC, LATMOS/IPSL, France
- Dr Elke Brandes, Iowa State University, United States
- Dr Ethan Butler, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, United States
- Professor Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution for Science, United States
- Dr Robin Chadwick, Meteorological Office, UK
- Dr Ankur Desai, University of Wisconsin at Madison, United States
- Dr Julio Diaz, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain
- Dr Matthew Duveneck, Harvard University, United States
- Dr Antonio Filippone, The University of Manchester, UK
- Dr Nathan Hendricks, Kansas State University, United States
- Dr Faisal Hossain, University of Washington, United States
- Dr Aixue Hu, National Center for Atmospheric Research, United States
- Dr Michael Jakob, Mercator Institute for Global Commons and Climate Change, Germany
- Dr Eric Kasischke, University of Maryland, United States
- Dr Gilles Lemaire, INRA UR4, France
- Dr Jialun Li, Arizona State University, United States
- Dr Brant Liebmann, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States
- Dr Justin Mankin, Columbia University, United States
- Dr Andrew Marshall, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Australia
- Professor Bruce McCarl, Texas A&M University, United States
- Dr Kenobi Morris, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Malaysia
- Dr Raphael Nawrotzki, University of Minnesota, United States
- Dr Nick Obradovich, Harvard University John F Kennedy School of Government, United States
- Professor Oene Oenema, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Netherlands
- Dr Shonali Pachauri, The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria
- Professor Giuliano Panza, Universita’ di Trieste, Italy
- Dr Natalie Pekney, National Energy Technology Laboratory, United States
- Professor Michael Sanderson, Meteorological Office, UK
- Dr Ramiro Saurral, UMI-IFAECI/CNRS, Argentina
- Dr Jason Schatz, University of Wisconsin – Madison, United States
- Professor William Schlesinger, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, United States
- Dr Hans Tømmervik, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway
- Dr Rik Wanninkhof, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States
- Professor Bryan Weare, University of California – Davis, United States
- Dr Matthias Weitzel, National Center for Atmospheric Research, United States
- Dr Yangyang Xu, Texas A&M University, United States
- Professor Tao Yang, Hohai University, China
- Dr Yuan Yao, North Carolina State University, United States
- Dr Xuebin Zhang, Environment Canada, Canada
- Dr Lewis Ziska, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, United States