Engaging undergraduate students in preprint peer review

Authentic assessment allows students to demonstrate knowledge and skills in real-world tasks. In research, peer review is one such task that researchers learn by doing, as they evaluate other researchers’ work. This means peer review could serve as an authentic assessment that engages students’ critical thinking skills in a process of active learning. In this study, we had students write peer reviews of preprints, scaffolded by a rubric. Agreement between the students and academics was reasonable, and active student involvement was high. The results suggest that use of peer review in undergraduate classes should be explored more. It likely facilitates students’ ability to evaluate the quality of scientific studies, encourages active learning about the scientific process and shows potential for contributing to publicly-available assessment of scientific studies.