Guidelines and Resources for Manuscript Peer Review

Make sure you familiarize yourself with any journal-specific instructions for peer-review.  Some journals will provide peer review guidelines after you accept an invitation to review. Other journals make these guidelines available on the journal's homepage.

Research the journal to get a sense of the journal's content. Refer to the instructions to authors to determine if the paper meets the submission criteria of the journal (e.g. scope, length, etc).

Have a pen and paper ready to take notes while skim reading.

• Focus on big picture issues - ie consider the importance and significance of the research question, and originality of the research.
• Aim to form an overall impression and understanding of the manuscript.
• Consider the impact the article might have.
• Determine if the overall study design and approach is appropriate.
• Look at the writing style and structure of the manuscript.

Take a 1-2 day break from the manuscript to give you time to think and reflect on the article from your own perspective.