Editor Grace Fisher interviewed Oliver Wach about his recent experience as a peer reviewer for Reinvention journal and why he was motivated to support the journal. Oiver is a Research Fellow at the Institute for East European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, Oliver primarily focuses on Poland and Eastern Europe.

Grace Fisher, Editor, Reinvention volume 18 and 19, January 2026

What motivated you to become a peer reviewer for Reinvention and why did supporting undergraduate research feel important to you?

I'm motivated to support undergraduate research because of my own experience. My master's thesis was the first time I'd done scientific research where I pursued my own question, used my own methodology and data, and asked my own questions. The whole experience of writing the Master's thesis and getting such great supervision really motivated me and convinced me to apply for a PhD. That's why I think it's really important to get experience as early as possible, to talk about your work in a critical way, and to have the chance to even publish it.

How did you find the process of reviewing for Reinvention? Was there anything that stood out to you about working with undergraduate submissions?

I thought the review process for Reinvention was really well organised and professional, and you could really tell how motivated the volunteers were.

Why do you think peer review is such a vital part of maintaining quality and academic integrity in undergraduate publishing?

I believe that a peer review process is particularly important for undergraduate publications. While the research ideas, data and methods may be well developed by this stage, there is often little interaction with the scientific community or knowledge of the broader research field and its status (based on my own experience!). This is precisely the area in which a peer review process can be helpful. It can also help to gain a better 'big picture' view of a problem or topic.

What do you think are the benefits — both personal and academic — of taking part in peer review, for reviewers as well as for authors?

As well as the obvious scientific benefits of a peer review process for research papers, I think it also has huge personal and academic benefits for the reviewers. Reading a paper in such detail and going through all parts of it with equal focus gives you a better understanding of it than you would normally get from reading it. Additionally, you can learn a lot from strong examples and from common pitfalls, which you wouldn’t normally encounter in published work. Finally, from a personal perspective, being involved in a peer review process for the first time is a great feeling because you really feel like a valued member of the scientific community!

How do you think we can encourage more academics and researchers to volunteer as reviewers for undergraduate journals like Reinvention? What would you say to someone considering getting involved?

This is a vital question. I believe that involving junior academics, such as PhD students, in the peer review process is important. This offers advantages for PhD students, as they can gain initial peer review experience and also add this to their CV. It also benefits authors, as they can then often receive very detailed reports. The following publications were very helpful to me during my first peer review experiences:

Berk, Jonathan B., Campbell R. Harvey, and David Hirshleifer. "How to write an effective referee report and improve the scientific review process." Journal of Economic Perspectives 31.1 (2017): 231-244.

Berk, Jonathan, Campbell R. Harvey, and David A. Hirshleifer. Preparing a referee report: Guidelines and perspectives. SSRN, 2016

Guidelines to Write a Referee Report by Andrea Passalacqua: https://www.apassalacqua.net/posts/teaching-material/guidelines-on-how-to-write-a-referee-report/refguidelines_tepe.pdf 

Interested in publishing your research with Reinvention as well? Find out more at Reinvention: an International Journal of Undergraduate Research (reinventionjournal.org) or get in touch via reinventionjournal@warwick.ac.uk