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Peer review can be a confusing process at times and so to help cut out all the jargon and make it as simple as possible, we have developed the ‘Peer Review Experts’ blog series. Each week we’ll be bringing you top tips on a wide range of peer review subjects, straight from the experts; our very own peer-review team at F1000Research. For our first instalment, Jeniffer Jeyakumar, Senior Editorial Assistant at F1000Research is taking you back to basics and answering the question: Should you accept that review request?

We know receiving a peer review request can, at times, be overwhelming and it can be hard to decide when you should accept a request. So, we’ve put together a handy guide below to help make this decision easier for you next time you receive an invitation to review:

Should you accept that peer review request?

• When you receive an email asking you to review an article, please make sure that this is from the journal itself. If this has been sent by the author or another reviewer, always let the journal know before deciding whether to review the article, just in case you were not the intended recipient.
  
  
• If you have potential financial or non-financial competing interests with either the article or any of the authors on the paper, please let the journal know to make sure this does not preclude you from writing a review. If you are eligible to review for us, you should add your COI statement to the review form, which will be published within your report so that the authors and readers are aware.
  
  
• Always check the article abstract which can be found at the end of your invite email and look at the article itself before agreeing to review. This will allow you to check your expertise within the article.

How does your expertise apply to the article?

You do not need to be an expert in all aspects of the article. Let us know which parts of the article you can review, whether that be the statistics or the methods for example. This will be included as part of your review, to let the authors and readers know which area you have focused on. If you know of someone who can review other parts of the article, perhaps a colleague, we encourage you to invite them to write the report with you as a co-reviewer. Their details will appear alongside yours next to the report, so they also receive full credit.  

Do you have enough time to review?

Please consider whether you have enough time to write a comprehensive and constructive review. Your review should allow the authors and readers to know your thoughts on the article, and help the authors improve their article based on your comments. If you would like to give some feedback to the authors but you feel it is not enough to constitute a report, consider writing a comment on the article instead. On the other hand, if you could write a comprehensive review but need some extra time, please let the peer review team know as they would be happy to extend the deadline for you.

If you meet the above criteria, you can accept an F1000Research Peer Review request by either creating an F1000Research account or simply replying to your invite email.

If you’re interested in reviewing for F1000Research and would like to know more please click the following link for our reviewer guidelines: https://f1000research.com/for-referees/guidelines. Also, check out a handy downloadable guide to peer-review.