The role of a reviewer

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What exercise reviewers do, and why?

Reviewers evaluate commodity submissions to journals based on the requirements of that journal, predefined criteria, and the quality, abyss and accurateness of the inquiry presented. They provide feedback on the newspaper, suggest improvements and make a recommendation to the editor nearly whether to accept, refuse or asking changes to the commodity. The ultimate decision ever rests with the editor but reviewers play a significant office in determining the outcome.

Find out more nearly the process and what is involved here

What do reviewers do, and why?

Reviewing is a time-intensive process – writing a review report can exist almost every bit much work every bit writing a manuscript! – but it is very worthwhile for the reviewer as well equally for the customs.

Reviewers:

  • ensure the rigorous standards of the scientific process by taking part in the peer-review system.
  • uphold the integrity of the periodical by identifying invalid inquiry, and helping to maintain the quality of the journal.
  • fulfil a sense of obligation to the community and their own area of research.
  • establish relationships with reputable colleagues and their affiliated journals, and increment their opportunities to bring together an Editorial Board.
  • can assist prevent upstanding breaches by identifying plagiarism, enquiry fraud and other issues by dint of their familiarity with the subject area.
  • reciprocate professional courtesy, as authors and reviewers are frequently interchangeable roles – equally reviewer, researchers "repay" the aforementioned consideration they receive as authors.

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Register your involvement to exist a reviewer

Typically, reviewers are invited to conduct a review by a periodical editor. Editors usually select researchers that are experts in the same discipline area as the paper. Withal, if y'all call up yous would exist a expert referee for a specific periodical you can volunteer to review on our Reviewer Hub. On the "Volunteer to review" section of the Reviewer Hub, you lot tin search for the journal(south) of your choosing and click on "Review for journal" to indicate your interest. Please note that you should starting time complete your reviewer profile.

Access the Reviewer Hub

Other ways to volunteer to review

  1. Keep an eye on the journal homepage of your choice for a "volunteer to review" pod.
  2. Alternatively, visit the journal homepage and "view full editorial board", then contact the relevant editor(south) through the site and offer your reviewing services.

    3. Please exist enlightened that the choice of whether or non to cull a particular referee for a newspaper is entirely at the discretion of the editor and Elsevier plays no part in this decision.

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Recognizing reviewers

Elsevier acknowledges reviewers' invaluable contribution to the progress of science. Elsevier's reviewer recognition program aims to appoint reviewers and reward them for the work they do. The program features several projects and experiments:

Reviewer Hub

The time, energy and expertise that referees contribute to validating the work of their peers is vital to the advancement of the academic community. Elsevier'due south Reviewer Hub provides reviewers with a ways of showcasing their efforts and receiving credit for their work.

The platform offers reviewers a personalized profile folio, documenting their reviewing history and review certificates.

On the Reviewer Hub, reviewers tin also claim their thirty days' complimentary access to Scopus and ScienceDirect.

The platform offers discounts for several Elsevier services, including Elsevier'due south WebShop, which offers professional English linguistic communication editing, translation and illustration services for researchers preparing their articles, and the Elsevier Book Store.

Access the Elsevier Reviewer Hub

Peer review reports equally articles

The publishing peer review reports pilot publicly recognized reviewers' intellectual contribution to accustomed manufactures through the official publication of their reports. Review reports were attributed a separate DOI and published next to the accustomed paper on Science Direct. If you are new to reviewing, you are urged to consult a few of these reports to get a experience for how to provide feedback yourself. Review reports are bachelor for the following journals via the "supplementary material" section of manufactures published between 2015-2018. Participating journals include:

  • Agronomics and Forest Meteorology
  • Annals of Medicine and Surgery
  • Engineering Fracture Mechanics
  • Periodical of Hydrology: Regional Studies
  • International Journal of Surgery

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Reviewer feedback programme

We regularly survey reviewers to get a amend understanding of their needs and how we're doing when it comes to meeting them. Findings from the reviewer feedback programme help us to improve the reviewing feel. For example, 90% of reviewers said they would similar to be able to see the final decision and other reviewers' comments on a paper, so we added this functionality to the electronic submission system.

The reviewer feedback program monitors Elsevier's operation from the perspective of reviewers on Elsevier journals. We'll ask you almost diverse aspects of the reviewing system and other aspects of reviewing via an online survey. Areas of interaction and support are measured and reported regularly. Elsevier'south performance is benchmarked against that of other publishers.

If you have been asked to consummate our reviewer feedback programme online survey, we strongly recommend you consummate it to make sure your voice is heard.

Tools & resources picto

Elsevier Researcher University modules

Reviewers' Update articles