How to Become a Reviewer for Journal How to Ask

In belatedly September, just as the autumn was rolling in, Cell Press and the balance of the earth of scientific publishing got busy recognizing reviewers and the procedure of peer review.

Peer Review Week 2016 brought together blog posts, webinars, panel discussions, and videos that covered topics from the demand to stand upwards for peer review to the demand for recognition and innovation in peer review. Here at CrossTalk, nosotros shared tips for reviewers and heard from some of Structure's nigh active reviewers.

The dust has at present settled on Peer Review Week, simply that doesn't hateful that nosotros don't continue to call up about the peer review process and our reviewers. On a more personal level, over the last month or so, I've had some fourth dimension to reverberate on the peer review, why I think it's valuable, and reminisce about my first reviewer assignment.

This likewise got me thinking near a question I'm frequently asked by early-career researchers: "How practise I go a reviewer?" Nigh early-career researchers who inquire this have experienced what it means to be on the receiving terminate of the peer-review process as an author, and they're very energized to get involved more deeply and get involved in the peer-review process as referees. When I enquire why, they tell me that their involvement is fueled past eagerness to get more than active and visible in their scientific field and contribute to advancing the scientific discipline as well equally the demand for professional person development and growth.

Overall, early on-career researchers recognize that serving as a peer reviewer does help expand an important skillset that includes critical thinking, attention to detail, giving both positive and negative feedback, and respecting the ideas of others while at the same time being able to affirm your own opinions. I'll say no more than on the topic of how to be a good reviewer (because that deserves a mail or ii on its own) and focus on providing some advice on how to become a reviewer in the offset place.

one.Tell your boss you'd like to learn about the peer review

My tiptop piece of advice to anyone who has ever asked me about how to get involved in scientific peer review is to arroyo an advisor, mentor, or senior colleague and tell them y'all're interested in learning how to exist a reviewer and offering to assist them next time they take a reviewer assignment. About of the states learn how to review papers through an apprenticeship relationship like this one. An counselor shares with a trainee a paper nether review and asks for comments that the advisor then looks over and discusses with the trainee before submitting them to the periodical. Through this process, trainees larn about structuring comments and feedback and the nuts and bolts of peer review, and advisors larn more about their protégés and how they think.

Ideally, over time, your advisor will be confident plenty in your ability to provide skillful review on a given topic that they'll kickoff recommending you directly to editors as an alternative on those occasions when they decline an invitation to review due to time constraints and other commitments. When that happens, editors may extend their invitation direct to you and give you a take chances to serve as a reviewer independent of your counselor.

ii. Write Reviews, Perspectives, and Commentaries

Although the majority of early-career researchers feel a great deal of pressure level to publish, this force per unit area is really express to publishing research articles. Just writing non-research scientific articles, like Reviews, Perspectives, and Commentaries is an first-class way to practice your ability to think broadly about scientific discipline, form an opinion about what key questions in a specific field are, navigate and discuss published literature, and place your viewpoint in the context of the field.

Slap-up Reviews have the power to change the direction of the field and can strengthen the reputation of their authors. For anyone who's interested in serving as a peer reviewer, writing a not-research scientific commodity likewise offers an opportunity to practice writing and offering scientific arguments in a concise form, which is a skill that translates well into what we expect to run into from the reviewers.

three. Build your voice by helping others

Every bit a graduate educatee and a postdoc, yous also have a number of dissimilar opportunities to build your voice. By that I mean that nosotros all need to develop an ability to communicate very complex ideas with relative ease to both experts and those who, although more often than not knowledgeable, may not accept easily-on experience with a specific idea or area of research.

Additionally, interacting with peers in your lab or your department offers an first-class opportunity to practice giving and receiving scientific feedback and engaging in scientific conversations and discussions. Offering to comment on grant proposals, manuscript drafts, or presentations and posters that your colleagues are putting together are easy ways to get engaged and practice what being a peer reviewer is all about. Think about all the opportunities that y'all have already at your disposal within your local customs to comment on work of others and receive comments on your ain piece of work and try to get equally much from those informal interactions as possible. Offer to lead periodical club discussions, provide comments during the group meetings, or grade an interest group around a technique that several labs in your neighborhood share.

You may also consider using social media to share your scientific insights and views or annotate on the work of others publicly online. These are all valuable means to engage with science, fellow scientists, and the broader public, but in guild for any of this to count towards building your visibility and reputation, you need to make a decision to engage as yourself, and not anonymously. For some, this will be an easy determination to make, for others a more than complicated one, simply social media is a place where a lot of scientific ideas are existence shared and discussed, so information technology would be amiss of me not to mention it.

4. Network, network, network

Journal editors, whether they're professional person editors like myself or active scientists, are engaged and visible in their communities. We're genuinely interested in coming together early-career researchers and hearing what they're excited near, what they're working on, and what they're thinking almost. So, if yous're interested in condign a peer reviewer, taking the fourth dimension to engage with an editor and learn near the scope and interest of their periodical and what they value in a reviewer is an easy start step in building a lasting human relationship with a journal and through it with the community it serves.

You may also consider contacting journals and journal editors directly and offering your services. Some journals really encourage you to do and so, but here I would suggest some caution. Unless you know and respect the journal yourself, it might be best to do some research on the periodical and inquire your more than senior colleagues near their feel with that publication, and if it looks like your expertise matches the scope of the periodical and your senior colleagues view the journal as having a strong reputation, go for it and limited your involvement.

Depending on a periodical y'all may get a set of guidelines to follow.  For example, we accept reviewer instructions that help orient our reviewers virtually what nosotros expect from them and what they can expect from us. Merely, if yous ever accept a question or a business, get in touch with the editor, and we can assist y'all out. Every bit with everything else, developing strong peer-review skills takes fourth dimension, and becoming a reviewer is just the beginning pace.

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Milka is the Program Director of Chemical Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is a passionate abet for chemical biology and its transformative ability to accelerate basic and translational discoveries on the chemistry-biology-medicine continuum. Milka is committed to promoting gender equality, as well equally well-being of early career researchers.

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Source: http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/how-to-become-a-reviewer-for-a-scientific-journal