Reviewer guidelines
Reviewer Privileges
A reviewer is any DAAO member who has submitted profile details in a Reviewer registration form and been activated by DAAO administration. As a reviewer, a DAAO maintainer may contact you when a new biography needs peer review and that biography matches the interest/expertise profile that you have supplied.
From the action list, you will be able to:
- view existing projects
- read a biography associated with a project
- approve a project with comments
- reject (return) a project with comments
- modify own reviewer profile (via login controller)
Reviewer Responsibilities
Before a reviewer is assigned and claims a biography, that biography will have been checked and indexed by a DAAO maintainer in accordance with the DAAO Contributor Guidelines.
A reviewer is not required to edit biographies, a reviewer is asked only to provide comments and instruction regarding why they are accepting or rejecting (returning) a biography.
Where biographies have been rejected (returned), comments submitted by the reviewer to the DAAO will be passed to the author to enable corrections. Subsequently, all comments must be specific, detailed, useful and considerate.
Criteria for acceptance as a Reviewer
The following criteria are mandatory for Reviewers
- relevant expertise and experience in an area of art practice
- an email account and regular access to email
- regular communication of the Reviewer’s availability and unavailability.
Principles
- Respect for original research and authorship
- Anonymity: Review is a double blind process – the author cannot view your userid and you cannot view theirs. Reviewers’ identities are protected by the DAAO but reviewers are also responsible for maintaining their anonymity.
- Conflict of interest: With respect to conflicts of interest, board and other members should take measures to avoid any situation in which they may have a conflict of interest arising out of their relationship with another member, financial and other interests. Members who are unable to resolve or avoid a conflict of interest should disclose that conflict of interest to their managing Maintainer, consider the advice subsequently provided and if necessary decline to act.
Guidelines for acceptance and rejection of biographies
A biography may be accepted if it:
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Meets the DAAO Criteria for Inclusion by focusing on:
- art history not art criticism
- authoritative content not reviews
- information not opinion
- research, rather than promotion
- be written in plain English
- is factually and historically accurate
- is impartial
- is respectful
- is of substance
- provides substantiation
- provides a summary of an artist’s life
A biography may be rejected if it does not meet DAAO standards, including:
- is factually incorrect
- includes contentious material that is unsourced, poorly sourced or considered derogatory
- makes a personal attack against anyone
- focuses on criticism rather than history
- emphasises opinion over information
- is not written in plain English
- is considered to be unduly self-serving in the case of biographies written by the artists themselves
System protocols
A biography may be reviewed more than once, and by different Reviewers if necessary. A review will be abandoned if not revised adequately after three negative reviews.
Time-outs also apply. Reviewers must submit comments inside ten working days of claiming the project. Authors are given a month to submit a new biography, and a total of one month to revise their biography if necessary. Authors may subsequently update or ‘version’ their own published biographies at any time. Other authors may write ‘variant’ biographies of a published biography.
Guidelines for biographies about living artists and self-written biographies
Living artists
Authors and reviewers are advised to take particular care when dealing with biographical material about a living person. Such material requires a degree of sensitivity, and must adhere strictly to our content and Privacy Policies and to the DAAO Contributor Guidelines.
Where the subject is the source
In some cases the subject may have been involved in creating the biography, either writing it themselves or overseeing/approving a representative to create it. Information supplied by the artist may be admitted if it:
- meets the Criteria for Inclusion
- is relevant to the person’s notability
- is not contentious
- is not unduly self-serving
A blog or personal website written by the subject may be listed in the external links/further reading section if it satisfies the DAAO's Links Policy.
Guidelines for Reviewer Comments
Reviewer’s comments may:
- provide constructive and precise feedback and guidance for changes and areas in need of revision
- identify strengths and weaknesses in terms of the complete biography.
- suggest further research in a particular area where relevant.
It is important to note that when a biography is rejected (returned), the author will be sent the reviewer’s comments. For this reason Reviewers should be sensitive in providing feedback.
Relevant links
DAAO Contributor guidelines
DAAO Board guidelines
DAAO Links policy
DAAO Indemnity statement
DAAO Privacy policy