Submitting a review

Once a Reviewer has agreed to a review assignment, he or she can access the manuscript by clicking on ‘Pending Assignments’ on the Reviewer Main Menu as shown below.

There are several actions that can be performed from this menu:

The Reviewer may download the PDF of the manuscript to the desktop by clicking ‘View Submission’.  To print out a copy of the submission from the PDF file, the users should select the ‘File’ menu in the upper left corner of the Acrobat window and select ‘Print’.

Reviewers may search online databases, such as MEDLINE, to view articles that may be similar to a particular manuscript by using Similar Articles in MEDLINE.  Clicking this link displays a new browser window featuring the Knowledge Finder® MEDLINE search engine.  Other bibliographic search engines work in a similar fashion.

When ready to submit a review, the Reviewer clicks ‘Submit Recommendation’.  This will bring him or her to the ‘Reviewer Recommendation and Comments’ screen.

Reviewers can choose a recommendation term (Accept, Reject, Revise etc.) via the pull-down menu for ‘Recommendation’. 

On the ‘Submit Reviewer Recommendation and Comments’ page, the Reviewer Instructions and Review Form text will be displayed in the comments box.

Reviewer forms are configured by the Editorial Office, but Reviewers will typically be asked to answer Manuscript Rating Questions on the Submit Reviewer Recommendation and Comments page as shown below.  These questions may appear at the beginning or end of the screen:

The Publication can choose which questions to apply to each Article Type/Reviewer Role combination, and indicate whether each question is required or optional.  If the submission being reviewed is a new, rather than revised submission, the Publication may also request that an overall rating to the manuscript (1–100) be assigned.

Each Publication provides specific instructions for review of a submission – users can access these instructions by clicking the button labeled ‘Reviewer Instructions’ at the top of the review fields.

Reviewers may enter comments to the Author and Editor in the fields provided.  For convenience, Reviewers may use a regular word processing program (e.g., Microsoft Word, WordPerfect) when typing a review.  Reviewers should then ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ the comments into the boxes provided.  Click the ‘Save & Submit Later’ button to save comments and continue working.  Clicking the ‘Open in New Window’ button at the top right of the data entry fields will open the field in a new browser window, providing the user with a larger view of the review field. 

Clicking ‘Proof & Print’ will open a window containing all of the review information, as a way to make a printout of the review. 

The Reviewer must click ‘Submit Now’ to proceed.  This will bring up a screen that allows the Reviewer to proofread before sending it to the Publication Office.  If further edits are needed, click ‘Edit Review’.  If satisfied with the review, click ‘Submit Review to Journal Office’