Reviewers are expected to find out about the novelty of the manuscript they are assigned to. Hence, it is recommended that they read the MJEE Guide for Authors to ensure an understanding of the points authors are expected to observe before submission.
On Being Asked To Review
1) Does the assigned manuscript truly match the reviewer’s expertise?
The Editor who has approached you might not fully aware of your specific, and only be aware of your work in a broader context. Accept an invitation ONLY IF you are competent to review the article.
2) Do you have time to review the paper?
Reviewing an article can be quite time-consuming. The time taken to review can vary from field to field, but an article will take, on average, 8-10 hours to review properly. Will you have sufficient time before the deadline stipulated in the invitation to conduct a thorough review? If you cannot conduct the review let the editor know immediately, and if possible advise the editor of alternative reviewers.
3) Are there any potential conflicts of interest?
A conflict of interest will not necessarily eliminate you from reviewing an article, but full disclosure to the editor will allow them to make an informed decision. Instances include being a colleague of one of the authors, having been a coauthor before with any authors, or your having a professional or financial connection to the article. These must be fully listed when responding to the editor’s invitation for review.
Conducting the Review
Reviewing needs to be conducted confidentially, the article you have assigned to as a reviewer must not be disclosed to a third party. If you wish to elicit opinions from colleagues or students regarding the article you should let the editor(s) know before. Most editors welcome additional comments, but whoever else is involved will likewise need to keep the review process confidential. The authors are not to be contacted directly by reviewers. Be aware that any conducted review will contribute to the final decision made by the editor(s). You will be asked to evaluate the article on a number of criteria. Normally you would be expected to evaluate the article according to the following criteria:
1) Originality
Originality is the most essential criterion. When reviewing a manuscript, please notice that papers that can be accepted are ones that make novel theoretical and/or methodological contributions to the field. Generally, manuscripts should be accepted only if they appear to represent an important new development in their field. The following questions can help you make better decisions: Is the article sufficiently novel and interesting to warrant publication? Does it add to the canon of knowledge? Does the article adhere to the journal’s standards? Is the research question an important one? In order to determine its originality and appropriateness for the journal it might be helpful to think of the research in terms of what percentile it is in. Is it in the top 25% of papers in this field? You might wish to do a quick literature search using tools such as Scopus to see if there are any reviews of the area. If the research has been covered previously, pass on references to those works to the editor.
2) Structure
Is the article clearly laid out? Are all the key elements (i.e., title, abstract, keywords, introduction, background, methodology [participants, instruments, procedure], results, discussion, conclusion, references, appendices) present? Consider each element in turn:
3) Presentation
4) Ethical Issues
Also, see MJEE publication ethics.
Communicating Your Report to the Editor
Once you have completed your evaluation of the article the next step is to write up your report. If it looks like you might miss your deadline, let the editor know. In your report, you will provide the editor with an overview of your remarks. It is helpful to provide a quick summary of the article at the top of your report. It serves the dual purpose of reminding the editor of the details of the report and also reassuring the author and editor that you understood the article.
The report should contain the key elements of your review, addressing the points outlined in the preceding section. Commentary should be courteous and constructive, and should not include any personal remarks or personal details including your name. You should also use line-number referencing and give examples of the areas of the paper that require revision (e.g., page 2 paragraph 3, line 7 needs grammatical correction).
Providing insight into any deficiencies is important. You should explain and support your judgment so that both editors and authors are better able to understand the basis of the comments. You should indicate whether your comments are your own opinion or reflected by data.
When you make a recommendation regarding an article, it is worth considering the categories an editor will likely use for classifying the article:
In case you decide the article requires revision, clearly identify what revision is required, and indicate to the editor whether or not you would be available to review the revised article.
After External Review
After the external peer review of a manuscript, the corresponding author will receive an email in which s/he will be informed of the status of the manuscript (i.e., whether it has been accepted, requires revision, or rejected).
What if revision is required?
In most cases, MJEE reviewers may recommend that authors revise their manuscripts and send their revisions to MJEE for further processing. In such cases, authors may want to accept some of the comments and suggestions that have been made by the reviewers, and at the same time refute some others. MJEE fully understands that, after all, authors have worked on their papers for a long time, and that they may see points that may go unnoticed by reviewers. It is, therefore, strongly recommended that authors send in a ‘rebuttal’ note (in the form of a Microsoft Word *.doc or *.docx file) in which they respond to all the comments and suggestions made by the reviewers in an item-by-item fashion. They should clearly show which comments and suggestions they accept, and which comments and suggestions they refute. Where a comment or suggestion is refuted, the author is expected to provide the reason why.
Ethical Duties of Reviewers
Majlesi Journal of Electrical Engineering (MJEE) is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and its ethical policy is thus based on COPE guidelines and complies with the International Committee of Journal Editorial Board codes of conduct.
Reviewers’ Responsibilities
(https://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf)
For detailed information about MJEE publication ethics click here.