Editorial Note: Standards, Expectations, and Potentials of On-line Reviews. Using the Special Issue: FQS Reviews II to Provide Some Considerations and an Invitation to Share in Further Discussions

Abstract

On the occasion of publishing the second Special Issue: FQS Reviews some aspects of reviews as scientific products and of reviewing as a scientific action are discussed: Relying on the experience of publishing reviews in FQS for more than two years, possible (new) standards of reviewing and possible expectations towards the review process from both the readers and the writers of reviews will be outlined and used to discuss some potentials of on-line reviews. As the rubric FQS Reviews (like FQS altogether) is addressing a multidisciplinary audience, contributions belonging to this rubric should inform the readers in a rather comprehensive way and they should be attractive for different readers. To attain this, reviews in FQS should fulfill at least three main functions: a description of the contents, an evaluation, and some contextualization, i.e., introduce the respective research field to which the book/media unit belongs. Additionally, on-line reviews require some special design and layout characteristics to support their usability and readability. So, for the last two years, we have engaged in developing, establishing and formalizing processes of FQS Review in order to improve the quality of on-line reviews provided. Using this report about the state of FQS Review—and, more generally, about on-line reviews and reviewing—we would like to invite the feedback and suggestions of all colleagues participating in and/or interested in FQS, which will be used to structure our further work. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0204415