Judging the Scientific Quality of Applied Lighting Research

Applied lighting research is inherently interdisciplinary. Any one study in which investigators seek to understand the effects of light may involve expertise drawn from fields as varied as psychology, physiology, photobiology, vision science, engineering, physics, horticulture, and architecture. Despite differences in the specifics of research methods, data management, data analysis, and presentation, the logic of scientific thinking is a common thread. This is the basis on which the peer review system operates. This article leads readers through the criteria used by journal reviewers and editors to determine the acceptability of papers for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This is done by review of the 1941 paper by Kruithof in which he described the now-famous “Kruithof curve” relating preferred light source color temperatures and illuminances: How would one review the original Kruithof paper today, and what would we expect to be told about this work in order to judge the validity of the conclusions?.