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[Phys-l] refereeing



I would be most interested to hear the collected wisdom of the group on the topic of reviewing manuscripts. I'm finding I'm doing more and more reviewing these days. (On average about one manuscript a week.)

What are some principles you find helpful? What kinds of things do you try to cover in your reviews? What do you try to avoid?

Just to get the ball rolling, here are a few thoughts of my own:

I think a review should always include suggestions for improvement. It's just lazy of a reviewer to reply with a yes/no verdict but little else. At the same time, I divide my comments into two categories: MUST change (errors in the physics, omissions, major lack of clarity or organization) and SUGGESTIONS ("if I were the author I would..." but I'm not the author so you can ignore me if you want - however I suggest harmonizing the symbols used, rearranging those figures, adding in such-and-such comment, etc).

I try to always make a firm up or down recommendation. I think sending back a review that says maybe accept, or I liked this but didn't like that, just puts the onus on the editor. Okay maybe that's his job... but some editors consistently interpret a "maybe" verdict as a "yes" and others as a "no", so if you knew that editor you would know that you're actually saying yes or no, so why not just say it?

However, sometimes I really do get stuck trying to decide. I would particularly like to hear from others what you do in a case like that: do you tell the editor "I can't decide and I really think you need to send it to another reviewer" or what?

Answers to this last question and any other good ideas about improving as a peer reviewer would be greatly welcome. I think it's an important part of our job as scientists that we get scant training on (other than on-the-fly). -Carl

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Carl E Mungan, Assoc Prof of Physics 410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
Naval Academy Stop 9c, 572C Holloway Rd, Annapolis MD 21402-1363
mailto:mungan@usna.edu http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/