Ethical Guidelines Reviewers

You have been invited to perform a review of a manuscript. What to do as invitee?

To be able to assure the highest quality possible in open access publications we consider it very important that the reviewers of manuscripts also would like to deliver the highest quality possible when reviewing. See an invitation to review a manuscript as an honor, you as reviewer decide over acceptance or rejection of a submitted manuscript to a journals. The Journal of Applied Bioanalysis (ISSN 2405-710X) uses the DOUBLE-BLIND peer review process. 

Here are some advices you should consider prior to acceptance of a manuscript review:

- Make sure the article you have been asked to review truly matches your expertise.
- Avoid a potential conflict of interest.
- Understand what is important in a peer-review process.
- Make sure you have enough time to perform the review within the given time- contact the editorial office when you need more time!
- Keep the information you get from the manuscript you review confidential also after the finish of the review process.
- Look during the review process at potential plagiarism, structure of the manuscript, originality, language, statistical errors, conclusion and discussions.
- Provide a clear and summary of your review result (comments).
- Be critical and justify your criticism.
- Check aims and scope of the journal and make sure that your comment are comply with the journals policies.
- Advise the editor for minor revision-major revision or rejection of the manuscript based on true observations made and not personal perceptions.
- Inform the editor if you are willing to review also the revised manuscript.
- Never reveal your identity (double blind peer-review process).

More specific information about to what ethical behavior reviewers should adhere can be found in the COPE ethical guidelines for peer-reviewers or contact the editorial office/editor-in-chief.