In yesterday’s post, we talked about some of the fantastic benefits of reviewing papers for scientific journals. If you’ve decided you would like to take part in peer review, or perhaps you already do, we hope you’ll find the top tips for writing a review that we are sharing in today’s post useful.
Tip 1: Focus on key questions
Different journals may have specific questions they want you to focus on, however, when reading through the paper, some broad key questions to keep in mind include:
What hypotheses or questions does this work address?
How does this work advance our current understanding?
Why is this work important and timely? Have appropriate techniques been used?
Is the overall presentation of the work to a good standard?
(Note: you don’t need to provide any feedback on the use of grammar when you review for New Phytologist – our Production Team will take care of this if the paper is accepted for publication.)
Tip 2: Be the reviewer that you would want to review your own work
If you have lots of feedback on the paper that you are reviewing, try to make sure that it is as constructive as possible and that the tone of your review remains friendly, collegiate and professional.
We want to encourage the authors to improve their work to a higher standard. Ensure you refer to the line numbers to direct the author to specific areas that need attention.
Our Editor, Dior Kelley, suggests keeping the following question in mind when writing your review:
Would I be willing to sign my name at the end of what I just wrote to the authors?
Although New Phytologist’s reviewers are kept anonymous, consider the question above. Feedback should be constructive and appropriate and written in a tone appropriate for scholarly communication.
Tip 3: Write enough, but not too much
It’s great to provide detailed feedback to the authors but it doesn’t have to be exhaustive. Remember that other reviewers will be casting an eye over the paper as well. Try to keep your feedback focused and concise if you can.
If you have a publication recommendation or if you have comments that you would rather only the Editor can view, make use of the Comments to Editor box on the report form.
Tip 4: Reach out to the Editorial Office if you need more time
We appreciate that reviewing a paper is voluntary and it requires time and attention, in addition to other workloads. If you are struggling to complete the review due to time constraints, please contact our friendly Central Office so we can work out the best way forward.
Image credit: Nathan Dumlao, Unsplash.
Tip 5: Co-review!
If you are at the start of your academic career or you don’t have a lot of experience reviewing papers, consider co-reviewing the paper with a colleague – this could be your supervisor. Similarly, if you are invited to review a paper, consider whether one of your mentees could contribute.
At New Phytologist we are interested in fostering and developing the careers of early career scientists and, in particular, we recognise that reviewing manuscripts can be a valuable learning experience for researchers in the early stages of their career.
If you have received an invitation to review a paper but would like to co-review it, all you need to do is drop us an email to let us know and provide your co-reviewer’s details when you submit your joint review.
Image credit: Scott Graham, Unsplash.
These are just a few tips to help you when navigating through peer review – we hope you find them useful!
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