Noriyoshi Takahashi MD, PhD

Dr. Noriyoshi Takahashi, MD, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Japan. His research interests lie in the area of radiotherapy for esophageal cancer and head and neck cancer. Recently, he has had new research interests in MRI-guided radiotherapy. To access Dr. Takahashi’s research work, you may visit here.

“A robust peer review system needs many reviewers,” says Dr. Takahashi. To him, the system must be responsive to both authors and reviewers as researchers often want to know if their manuscript is accepted or not as soon as possible. However, the current review system sometimes takes many days to find reviewers. Therefore, it is important to continue exploring and educating reviewers to keep a robust and efficient peer review system that can live up to the readers’ standards and maintain the research quality at the same time.

To Dr. Takahashi, peer review plays a role in maintaining the quality and validity of science and scientific manuscripts. Nonetheless, taking review tasks might be a heavy burden for doctors like Dr. Takahashi who has regular duties, especially the daily clinical practices. Luckily, he figures out a way to reduce the review burden, “Clinical work has a priority for me. I take review tasks between patient examinations, at lunchtime, on the train, or before going to bed. It works for me.”

Disclosing conflicts of interest (COI) is an important issue for Dr. Takahashi as a reviewer. He thinks that authors should indicate the presence or absence of COI. Research design consultations and reference paper recommendations alone provided by a company or interest group affect the results and discussions of the research immensely.