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Peer Reviews (221)

Published on in Vol 3, No 3 (2022): Jul-Sep

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/40822, first published .
Peer Review of “Are We Sure We Fully Understand What an Infodemic Is? A Global Perspective on Infodemiological Problems”

Peer Review of “Are We Sure We Fully Understand What an Infodemic Is? A Global Perspective on Infodemiological Problems”

Peer Review of “Are We Sure We Fully Understand What an Infodemic Is? A Global Perspective on Infodemiological Problems”

Authors of this article:

Gunther Eysenbach1 Author Orcid Image
Article Authors Cited by Tweetations (2) Metrics

    Peer-Review Report


    This is a peer-review report submitted for the paper “Are We Sure We Fully Understand What an Infodemic Is? A Global Perspective on Infodemiological Problems.”


    General Comments

    This is a reasonable viewpoint/opinion paper [1]. I do not agree with everything that is being said but that is also not the goal—it is the authors’ opinion.

    I do think the paper should be transferred to JMIR Infodemiology. As to the authors’ statement that “the obsessive pursuit of prestige must be drastically limited as they undermine the credibility of science,” I agree, and that also extends to obsession with the impact factor, so I hope the author follows his own advice and agrees to a transfer.

    Specific Comments

    Major Comments
    1. It may be worth citing [2] in addition to ref 1.
    2. Preprint servers do screen submissions, and there are different levels of screening, varying by preprint server. For example, MedRxiv implemented more strict criteria on COVID-19 compared with Zenodo, etc.
    3. “Level of evidence” is a well-known phrase and is typically thought of in terms of study type rather than dissemination modality (ie, “systematic review” is better than “RCT,” which is better than “observational studies,” etc). If you come up with a new hierarchy—that is not directly speaking to the study type—I would suggest you come up with a new phrase or label for the type of hierarchy you are suggesting.

    Conflicts of Interest

    None declared.

    1. Rovetta A, Castaldo L. Are We Sure We Fully Understand What an Infodemic Is? A Global Perspective on Infodemiological Problems. JMIRx Med 2022;3(3):e36510 [FREE Full text] [CrossRef]
    2. Mackey T, Baur C, Eysenbach G. Advancing Infodemiology in a Digital Intensive Era. JMIR Infodemiology 2022 Feb 14;2(1):e37115. [CrossRef]

    Edited by E Meinert; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 06.07.22; accepted 06.07.22; published 21.07.22

    Copyright

    ©Gunther Eysenbach. Originally published in JMIRx Med (https://med.jmirx.org), 21.07.2022.

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIRx Med, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://med.jmirx.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.