Editorial Conclusion: Kindness in the Review Process

A guiding ethos of the Agencies of Kindness project was that our academic practice should enact the very thing we researched. Our challenge as an editorial team was to bring kindness to the process of academic refereeing. The standard blind peer review process is often a disheartening experience, marked by shame, cruelty and disempowerment. We wondered if we could develop an alternative peer review practice, one that authors could look forward to, anticipate with pleasure, knowing that all participants were entering the process with an orientation of care. Could we enact a reviewing process that was motivating and joyous, while also being academically rigorous? One that supported scholars and built connections, strengthening a research community around the Special Issue thematics? One that placed respect and kindness at its core? Our efforts concentrated on offering two workshops, to which we invited all potential contributors to the special issue. In the first workshop, participants imagined together openings for kindness in the academic peer review: what would a kind review look like, what would it feel like? In the second workshop, participants implemented some of these ideas while reviewing submissions to the special issue.