Journal of Consumer Research Recognizes Bauer Professor as Top Reviewer
Published on November 12, 2018
Professor Vanessa Patrick
Getting a first paper published in an academic journal is a memorable milestone for scholars at the outset of their career. As the years progress, besides regularly publishing original research, reviewing the work of others in the field becomes increasingly important.
Vanessa Patrick, a professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship at Bauer College, recently received an Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Journal of Consumer Research for her service to the field. She and other research faculty at Bauer are committed to providing their intellectual input to the review process.
“The reviewer plays a role as a gatekeeper for the advancement of knowledge in a field,” Patrick said. “It is unpaid work, so you volunteer your time with the knowledge that other people are also putting in time to review your work.”
Faculty may be asked to serve as an ad hoc reviewer, serve on the editorial review board of a journal, or (in increasingly senior positions) as an Associate Editor or Editor, and doing so is a part of academic career advancement. (Click here to see a list of Bauer faculty currently serving on editorial boards.)
Patrick serves on the ERB of five of the top journals in the field of marketing: Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Retailing.
She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Consumer Psychology and the Journal of Retailing. She is also currently Editor of an issue on Everyday Consumer Aesthetics: Transformative Directions for Aesthetics in Everyday Life for the Journal for the Association for Consumer Research.
Reviewing is a significant time commitment, Patrick said.
“Reading the paper, thinking about it and coming up with constructive ways to move the paper forward. This is not easy work -- to think through the logic, and then decide, how can I make this paper better? Sometimes you just know, but sometimes it takes days to formulate how you will respond,” Patrick said.
“Ultimately you hope to show the author the path forward. It requires a great deal of skill and tact. I write reviews the way I would like to receive them.”
In return for their investment of time and energy, reviewers benefit from the exposure to the latest advances in their field and the knowledge that their work helps shape the future scholarly work in their field, Patrick said.