Resumo

BOLIVAR, Adriana. Discourse functions of negative evaluation in peer review reports of research articles in education. Núcleo [online]. 2011, vol.23, n.28, pp.59-89. ISSN 0798-9784.

The aim of this paper is to identify the discourse functions of negative evaluation in peer reviews of research articles submitted to a Venezuelan journal in the area of education. A corpus-based qualitative study is carried out focusing mainly on evaluation with evaluative “no”. The corpus consists of 51 peer review reports. A total of 158 textual segments are analyzed with reference to linguistic, normative and cognitive parameters of evaluation. As a result, four main discourse functions emerge from the data, which have been called: detractive, corrective, epistemic and relational. Each one of these functions evaluates aspects of the article: what is not present, what is not correct, what is not clear, and what is not allowed. The study offers important information to journal editors, reviewers and authors, and highlights the relevance of the peer review report as an academic evaluative genre in the peer reviewing system, with respect to a specific discipline in the humanities.

Palavras-chave : discourse functions; negative evaluation; peer reviewing; research articles; education.