Reviewer B’s 10 commandments of reviewing

June 25, 2013

With my Reviewer B badges, I wanted to start a little positive reviewing club, where people sign up to certain standards.  I tried to think up the 10 commandments for reviewing.

1. Thou shalt decline to review those articles where you know what your recommendation will be based on the author names only.

 

2. Thou shalt not steal the ideas in the paper you are reviewing and use them as your own.

 

3. Thou shalt not – in a second round of reviews – generate a whole new set of criticisms you could have raised the first time around.

 

4. Thou shalt not gratuitously increase your own citation count by recommending the authors reference your own work without due reason.

 

5. Thou shalt not let your own citation count be a factor in whether you recommend publication or not.

 

6. Thou shalt not actually be the editor pretending to be Reviewer B.

 

7. Thou shalt not comment that the submission seems like it has been written by a postgraduate/undergraduate/non-native speaker, especially when you know that it has been.

 

8. Thou shalt not use anonymity  to behave, write or criticise in a way that you would not do face-to-face.  Remember it is another person on the end of your comments.

 

9. Thou shalt not google the authors and use their status or publication history as a proxy for the quality of the paper.

 

10. Thou shalt do all the above to the best of your abilities, in a timely fashion, with courtesy and yet expect no pay or reward, even though others may receive pay or reward as a result of your efforts.