Rapid Reviews\Infectious Diseases (RR\ID) is an open-access, rapid-review initiative of the MIT Press and UC Berkeley that was developed in June 2020 to accelerate peer review of COVID-19-related preprints covering the pandemic and its impacts. RR\ID now expands beyond COVID-19 to advance the science community’s understanding of infectious diseases and emerging outbreaks. With funding from the Gates Foundation, we currently have editorial teams around the world based in the U.S. (based in Berkeley), India, Mexico, Vietnam, and Rwanda.
We: 1) provide student-supported editorial review and curation of current infectious disease preprints, powered by AI tools and platforms (also created and developed by RR\ID) 2) invite expert peer reviewers to provide reliable rapid peer reviews on newly released research that clinicians, researchers, journalists, and policy-makers worldwide can rely on to make sound judgements about disease priorities and amelioration. We create a shorter runway for open source peer-reviewed research produced in the wake of new findings. This helps accelerate productive academic, medical, and social science research on infectious diseases while reducing the likelihood of false and misleading scientific news being consumed by the public.
We are currently recruiting multiple Graduate Student Editors (GSE) for five domains who have specialized subject matter expertise related to infectious diseases to support our journal.
Public Health
Social Sciences and Humanities
Medical Sciences
Biological and Chemical Sciences
Physical Sciences and Engineering
If you are interested in becoming a graduate student editors for RR\ID, your study and interest should fall within one or more of the areas aforementioned. More RR\ID disciplines here. GSEs support on various fronts and will be involved in many of RR\ID key activities including: 1) Training/mentorship of undergraduate student teams who are learning about academic publishing (i.e., assessing potential peer reviewers and preprints); 2) Quality checking and finding peer reviewers proposed for preprints selected each week; 3) Provide guidance and subject matter expertise to Assistant Editors, the Editor-in-Chief, and other team members, including undergraduate apprentices.
Graduate Student Editors will:
1) Serve as a sounding board to our Assistant and Associate Editors, in their identification and review of important preprints as they relate to the GSE’s areas of interest/expertise. GSE’s will also be expected to contribute to the RR\ID editorial process including pitching preprints that they select, engaging with potential reviewers around draft peer reviews. and mentor undergraduate students.
2) Identify appropriate peer reviewers, and sometimes engage in outreach to specific peer reviewers regarding preprints we advance for review;
3) Attend editorial meetings to help advance discussion around the potential impact and evaluation of pitched preprints;
4) Help mentor undergraduate apprentices who we are training to critically read and assess research publications.
**Training and onboarding will be provided with a new cohort of GSE’s each semester
These positions are ideally for experienced graduate students including doctoral/medical students, post-doctoral fellows, MD/PhD/DrPH students, and medical students in the fellowship portion of their studies. Masters students with significant experience in their field are also welcome to apply. Applicants should be comfortable with (and ideally enjoy) a frontline view of the latest research into emerging infectious diseases, and have an appreciation of how different disciplinary approaches within the domain may affect the wider global scientific, policy and social response to infectious diseases.
To apply, please fill out this short application.
Applicants must be enrolled in a graduate program at UC Berkeley. We operate across five Infectious Disease "domains" including Public Health, Social Sciences and the Humanities, Medical Sciences, Biological and Chemical Sciences, and Physical Sciences/Engineering.
Students can obtain academic credits ranging from 1-3 units in the Spring 2025 semester (commensurate to 3 hours - 8 hours of time commitment weekly)
All new GSE's will need to go through a new RR\ID team member onboarding/orientation process, which is attendance at a 5-week workshop on Tuesdays, 5-6pm, starting January 21st.
A small number of NSF-funded scholarships are available for those who can commit to a 3-unit, 14-week course starting January 21st. The course will run in person on Tuesdays throughout the semester, from 5-7pm starting January 21st and will include the RR\ID onboarding/orientation process and a focus on writing peer reviews (See below)
RR\ID Peer Review ScholarshipWould you like to seek additional training through the RR\ID program on scientific peer review, and are you excited by the potential of enrolling in a 2-unit Peer Review Training Course developed as part of an NSF-funded initiative to improve graduate education at UC Berkeley? GSE’s supported by the RR\ID Peer Review Scholarship will learn how to conduct scientific peer reviews on current and impactful infectious disease-related (broadly applied) research and have the opportunity to publish their reviews and engage in scientific discourse. This course will meet weekly on Tuesday evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. during Spring 2025 semester. Selected participants will receive a $1,500 scholarship, awarded on a need and merit basis, to support their commitment to the course. Eligible applicants are first- and second-year graduate students in STEM Ph.D. programs (including public health). Applications from individuals from marginalized backgrounds are strongly encouraged. If you are interested in participating in this Peer Review Scholarship program and being considered for scholarship support, please complete the GSE application form and respond to the Scholarship questions in the form. |