They should be able to provide a record of all your contributions to their journals. Do your due diligence to get the review back in a timely manner. Consider the review process as a way to help advance your field, and provide feedback that is both deliberate and constructive. Well thought out and very well presented.
A lot of reviewers, and authors, would benefit from reading this. Excellent post, Jasmine, thank you! You cover the salient points we tackle every day in our editorial office. It can introduce the journal to new voices in the field and helps keep the review process on track for a timely manuscript decision. Most of our reviewers are also our authors. Remember when the paper you sent in took forever to review because the reviewers were so late?
And then the reviews were mean and unhelpful? Wallace for your good advice. Some further thoughts:. Let the editor know what aspects of a paper you feel most competent to deal with, and those you feel less competent with. For example, I sometimes review papers that include complex mathematics and I tell the editor that my competence has been applied only to the non-mathematical parts.
Often authors refer to their related earlier papers that are in other journals. In this case there may exist post-publication reviews by highly competent researchers that the editors of those journals did not consult.
The criticisms of those researchers may be relevant to your present task. Submitting your review does not end your responsibilities. If you think highly of a paper and yet it does not get accepted, try to find out why.
In one case, I contacted the author and we ended up collaborating on a new paper that did pass peer review in another journal. In another case, despite good reviews the editor declined the paper because the author had included short passages from one of his earlier papers and refused to modify the text so that it would not be picked up by anti-plagiarism software. An appeal to COPE did not budge the editor.
It was later published in the same form in another journal. When considering whether to pass on a reviewing task to your students or postdocs, ask yourself whether you would want your own papers reviewed in this way. Thank you for this excellent SK post, not only is it helpful to reviewers and authors, but good for editors to read and reflect on as well. Share Pin 1. Buffer 5. Mind the Time Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Peer reviewing is a form of collaboration between experts. Their critical feedback often improves research and helps propel it forward. As a reviewer, you get an early view of the exciting new research happening in your field. Not only that, peer review gives you a role in helping to evaluate and improve this new work. Reviewing articles written by other researchers can give you insight into how to improve your own.
The process of reviewing encourages you to think critically about what makes an article good or not so good. This could relate to writing style, presentation, or the clarity of explanations. You can then use this knowledge in your own writing and improve your chances of publication.
While a lot of reviewing is anonymous, there are schemes to recognize the important contribution of reviewers. These include reviewer lists in journals, reviewer certificates, and Publons. You can also include your reviewing work on your resume. Your work as a reviewer will interest appointment or promotion committees looking for evidence of service to the profession. Many journals are the center of a network of researchers who discuss key themes and developments in the field. Becoming a reviewer is a great way to get involved with that group.
This gives you the opportunity to build new connections for future collaborations. Tell them about your areas of expertise, your publication record, and your interest in reviewing. If you attend any academic conferences, these are good opportunities to meet editors who might be looking for new reviewers. Is there someone who knows your work and is already involved with a journal, or regularly reviews?
Ask whether they would be willing to pass on your details to the editor. They may also have some useful experience from when they first became a reviewer. Some journals make specific invitations for reviewers to get in touch. This might be the case if the journal is new or expanding its scope into a different area. Some publishers invite aspiring reviewers to add their details to a reviewer database. For example, Dove Press has a reviewer registration page.
Ask a senior colleague, with experience of reviewing, whether you could work with them on a review. Some journals also run mentoring schemes, designed to help support first-time reviewers.
Academic networking sites, such as ResearchGate or Academia. Make sure that your profile includes lots of detail about your current areas of research. You should also add links to any published journal articles or books. Many journals add authors who have published with them to their database of reviewers. It also means the editor is more likely to invite you to review when they receive a submission on a related topic to your own. Read tips from Nazira Albargothy for her advice on how early-career researchers can get their foot in the door.
Peer review involves the following steps:. Refer to the Instructions for Authors to check if the paper meets the submission criteria of the journal e. Here is a checklist to consider when reading the manuscript:. You should see becoming a reviewer as a professional responsibility.
Make sure your personal profile page whether institutional, on LinkedIn, on ORCID, on ResearchGate and other similar services is kept up to date with your areas of interest and research, making sure you add relevant keywords, including your contact details. Some publications require a formal appointment, others welcome an independent approach.
In this case, get in touch with the editor or editors and let them know you are willing to help. If you are a young researcher, let senior scientists know you are willing to participate in peer reviews, so they can suggest your name; as a young trainee, ask your adviser to involve you in peer review under their supervision.
Open review is designed to increase transparency in peer review and give power back to the community by opening up an otherwise closed process. Peer review is often considered an unpaid academic duty. However, it is also a great way to keep up-to-date with the developments in your field and allows you to be an actor in your community.
In any case, peer reviewing requires expertise and time and, even if you are paid in the typical sense, there are ways to get visibility and acknowledgement for your work. Explore ways in which you can earn credits for your activity as peer reviewer and join all services available today. When you are invited to review a manuscript, editors count on your knowledge of a specific topic. The first point to consider, therefore, is that you can provide valuable feedback with competence to your fellow authors.
If you are not familiar with the topic discussed, you should make a point immediately to alert the editor and decline the invitation. Agree to review only if you have the required expertise to evaluate the work and can be objective and unbiased in your comments. Once you have accepted the commitment, dedicate time to it and do your best to point out flaws in the manuscript, but also highlight good points.
Peer reviewing takes valuable time, so reserve sufficient time to create and shape comments which will help authors to improve their work. It is more than likely that they themselves review papers and they will be able to guide you through the process or involve you in part of the reviewing process.
They can also recommend you to the editors they review for. Find journals that are related to your area of expertise and identify articles that you feel confident you would be qualified to review. Most journals will give a name and contact email address for the handling editor. You could email that editor directly giving the reasons why you would be a good reviewer e.
At the next conference you are attending, you could identify any editors present again in your area of research and approach them directly Being a reviewer can be a rewarding responsibility and helps you to stay on top of the most up-to-date research and without reviewers, it would be impossible to maintain the high standards of peer-review journals. Accept Decline.
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