Submitting your review

Once you have agreed to your review assignment, you can access the manuscript by clicking on ‘Pending Assignments’ on the Reviewer Main Menu as shown below.

There are several actions you can perform from this menu:

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

You may search the MEDLINE database 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.

When you are ready to submit your recommendation, click ‘Submit Recommendation’.  This will bring you to the ‘Reviewer Recommendation and Comments’ screen.

You can choose your recommendation term ('Accept', 'Reject', 'Revise'. etc.) via the pull-down form for ‘Recommendation’. 

When you navigate to 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 Journal Office, but you 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 journal can choose which questions to apply to each Article Type/Reviewer Role combination, and indicate whether each question is mandatory or optional.  If the manuscript you are reviewing is a new, rather than revised submission, the Journal may also request that you assign an overall rating to the manuscript (1–100).

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

Enter your review comments to the Author and Editor in the fields provided.  For your convenience you may use your regular word processing program (e.g., Microsoft Word, WordPerfect) when typing your review.  You should then ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ your comments into the boxes provided.  Click the ‘Save & Submit Later' button to save your 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.  This provides you with a larger view of the review field, which may make things simpler for you. 

Clicking ‘Proof & Print’ will open a window containing all of the review information you have provided as a way for you to make a printout of your review for your records. 

Click ‘Submit Now’ to proceed.  This will bring up a screen that allows you to proofread before sending it to the Journal Office.  If you need to make further edits, click ‘Edit Review’.  If you are satisfied with your review, click ‘Submit Review to Journal Office’.