Thoughts on reviewers

One of the principal tasks of Editors is obtaining peer reviews of manuscripts submitted to the journal. These reviews are used as guidance in our decision-making process. Note that the reviews do not mandate to us Editors what the decision should be. (More on decision making in a later post.)

I like to ask early-career scientists to provide reviews. There are many good reasons to include an early-career scientist in the peer-review process. Some of the people I ask are flattered and politely decline because they don't feel prepared to do the review. Here are reasons why I think more early-career scientists should participate in the peer-review process.

1) Reviewing papers is something that I believe people should start early in their career. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think that the early-career scientist could give a quality review.

2) Reviewing papers is good practice for writing and revising your own research papers.

3) I almost always have several other reviewers in mind to review this paper, so the opinion of the early-career scientist isn't the only one to be considered.

4) Reviewing a paper means that you get to see the paper before it is published. Otherwise, you can't see the paper unless you directly ask the author for a copy.

5) Reviewing the paper might give you some ideas for your own research.

6) Early career scientists usually have more time and typically deliver longer, higher-quality reviews than some senior scientists who don't have the time or take the peer-review process as seriously as they should.

So, if you get a request for a review, you should consider accepting it.