Scientific Peer Review at UIC-SPH

Mock Peer Reviews are reviews of draft proposals from the perspective of potential agency reviewers. This review is intended to improve the scientific and strategic presentation of the application itself and is managed through the Office of Research Services as part of the schoolwide research support.

Mock reviews are designed to put a grant proposal through a process that represents the actual review process at a funding agency, most particularly the NIH. The purpose is to identify areas for strengthening the aims, background, and methods, and packaging the proposal to be successful/competitive at the outside review. The author(s) should think of this as an intellectual interchange to strengthen the application scientifically, not as an editorial review. As such, the application sections should be as complete as possible, but perfection is not expected. The SPH Review Advisory Board is responsible for the scientific review. Typically, these review sessions take two hours. Faculty members requesting scientific review would also be asked to share their final grant/pink sheets with the Senior Associate Dean (SAD) for an evaluation of the process.

The SPH research advisory board will form the basis of the review Panel. Additional content or funding agency expertise relating to the proposal will be added as appropriate. The SAD will moderate these reviews. Pre and post-doctoral students and additional faculty are invited to observe the process as a learning exercise unless the investigator requests a closed session.

Post-doc reviews should be done within the context of their training grants.

Timeline for Mock Reviews / Suggestions for optimizing all peer review sessions:

Please click here to view a flow-chart.

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