When I was a post-graduate student at Imperial College London, one of the highlights
of the week was the research seminar. As its name suggests, this was a meeting of
the research students to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and, crucially, for the
critical examination of any reports or papers that we were in the process of writing. It was
an unspoken rule that nothing could be submitted for publication until it had passed the
internal review of the research seminar. Although it was often frustrating for the authors,
it had the desired effect of sharpening the arguments, exposing any inadequacies in the
analysis, improving the readability. It almost guaranteed that, when the article was submitted
to a scholarly journal, it would be accepted with only minor revisions. The hard
work had already been done in the research seminar.