Peer Review—Do Unto Others

摘要

The Journal, like most journals, relies heavily on thendonated time and effort of our readership to review the manynmanuscripts we receive. Over the past several years, thenEditors have noted that it has become increasingly difficultnto persuade individuals to review manuscripts. We under-nstand that in this modern, hectic era when we are all asked tondo more with less and everybody has an ever-increasingnnumber of competing demands on their time, finding thentime to review a manuscript is harder than ever. Neverthe-nless, we believe that there is a professional obligation tonreview a reasonable number of manuscripts. From a self-nserving perspective, reviewing manuscripts offers the oppor-ntunity to learn what one’s colleagues are up to and to gainninsights into the editorial process. One senior colleaguenconcludes that since every manuscript submitted to a journalnrequires the efforts of 2 or 3 reviewers, they should agree tonreview 2 or 3 manuscripts for each manuscript they submitnto a given journal as either first or corresponding author, andnthat the journal sends for review, regardless of whether theirnmanuscript is accepted. This seems to us a good rule ofnthumb, although we have no intention of formalizing it.