Reviewers: an editors nightmare (or “Your can’t live with em…”)

Tuesday, 17 June, 2008

I’m just completing a moderately busy spring season at the Journal of Maps which has left me feeling a little battle worn. Having had two deadlines for special issues come (and go), I’ve had to deal with two “slugs” of papers coming for review. This is enough work in itself but was unfortuantely compounded by a problem with outgoing email on the JoM server. We use an “in-house” peer-review system on our server which sends out emails at various (editor controlled) stages of the review process. The system was successfully submitting emails for sending. Unfortunately the server wasn’t relaying any error which meant a took a couple of weeks to spot the problem and revert to a semi-manual system whilst the bug was fixed.

Anyway, that’s not the point of this blog (other than to note that editing is, well, admin, with a little bit of scholarly activity thrown in for good measure). Whilst the email problem compunded my woes, I have again been faced with the usual frustrations of dealing with reviewers. That is:

  • finding an appropriate reviewer
  • getting a response from a reviewer as to whether they are happy to review (or not
  • getting agreement from a reviewer who has problems interacting with the website
  • getting agreement from a reviewer who has problems in meeting a 1 month deadline (or 2 or 3)
  • getting agreement from a reviewer who has no intention of providing a review, but won’t both telling you
  • getting a reviewer who provides 1 sentence or paragraph of review



All of the the above happens, sadly, far too regularly and these are the consequences:

  • some subject areas/specialisms are difficult to find reviewers for (because they are so specialist). Not so much of a moan, but just goes with the territory
  • I request a response with about a week, knowing that some reviewers will be away from email. Sadly it seems too much trouble for some to respond. DELAY: 1-2 weeks
  • OK, not everyone is computer literate and journals are increasingly trying to minimise admin. It just surprises how difficult some people find interacting with websites. I suspect this will get easier with time
  • meeting a 1-month deadline is perhaps a little tight (although shorter timescales are common in medicine) and I don’t mind too much if it runs over a little. I also know that, outside teaching time, people’s committments can be much more fluid. However, is it really that difficult to schedule time to review 1,500 words of manuscript?? DELAY: 2-4 weeks
  • This has to be my #1 pet hate. OK, so if a reviewer accepts to review a manuscript they probably have every good intention, at the beginning, of doing so. However, even after the gentle 1-month reminder, you get… no response. If you don’t want to review a manscript, please don’t do it and let the editor know. DELAY: 4-8 weeks
  • This is possibly #2 on my list of pet hates. The only thing worse than providing no review, is a review that is, well, pointless. I don’t believe any paper is perfect either in writing style of content. So please read the manuscript carefully and provide some pertinent comments, otherwise say you don’t want to do it.



Perhaps I’m being a little hard on reviewers given that they are giving up their time with no recompense. However it cuts both ways. There is kudos in reviewing a manuscript and, of course, if you want to publish a manuscript in a journal then you will need it reviewed. Totting up some of the potential delays I’ve noted above, if you are unlucky they can run to a considerable number of weeks. The review process is by far the most time-consuming part of the process at JoM. We normally typeset within 2-weeks and publish in the next available issue. So reviewers are the real logjam (although authors can take a considerable amount of time to make corrections).

When I review a manuscript I will only accept if I believe I can justifiably comment upon the content and I can fit it in my schedule. I normally like to review within ~2-weeks. Being a train commuter I do get time to read which helps. I would normally expect to read the paper twice and provide at least 1-page of comments, although it is often 2-3 and sometimes 5-6. I also like to start out with the premise that a paper is publishable in the first instance, highlighting the positive impact upon the discipline. I prefer to see the author number the pages and provide correctly formatted (and cited) references, although I’m not particularly fussy typographically (as I think typesetting should get these in to shape).

Tbis might sound like a bit of a moan, but it is a plea across the board that reviewing forms part of our scholarly activity and we should therefore take it seriously as it impacts upon other peoples careers. I am genuinely very grateful to reviewers for the job they do and appreciate the assistance they give me in making an editorial decision.

Add comment

Fill out the form below to add your own comments