Skip to main content

Table 1 Definition of terms used in the present study

From: Tools used to assess the quality of peer review reports: a methodological systematic review

Structured quality tool: scale or checklist including more than one item aimed at guiding the user to assess the overall quality of a peer review report.

Unstructured quality tool: scale or checklist including only one item inquiring the overall quality of a peer review report.

Items: elements of a scale or checklist representing a component of peer review report quality. Items in a scale could or could not have an attached numerical score. If there is no attached score, these items provide the evaluator with a guidance to assess the overall quality of a peer review report.

Overall quality score in a scale is measured as:

• Sum of scores: score obtained by summing all scores for each item present in a scale.

• Mean of scores: score obtained by dividing the sum of scores for each item with the total number of items included in the tool.

• Single score: score obtained in those scales based on a single item.

• Summary score: score obtained in those scales with more than one item deriving from a question inquiring the overall quality of peer review report.