Peer review: Why do it, and how to get involved ?

Why should you become a peer reviewer?

The peer-review process is essential to the development of research across all subject areas, ensuring the integrity of the scientific record, and an important step towards gaining the experience required to join an Editorial Board is to become a strong peer reviewer.

As a reviewer, you help authors improve their papers and further develop their knowledge, and you also benefit from being able to read cutting-edge research prior to publication and before anyone else in the field. Most importantly, as a reviewer, you get the satisfaction of knowing you are contributing directly to the development of your chosen field.

How does Sage support and reward its peer reviewers?

Peer reviewing can be time-consuming. Reviewers need to carefully read and analyse the manuscript, assess the methodology, data analysis, and results, and provide detailed feedback - this process can be demanding, especially when reviewing complex or lengthy manuscripts. We recognize peer-reviewers are often juggling multiple professional and personal responsibilities, and finding the time to review manuscripts alongside other commitments can be challenging.

Reviewer resources and guidance:

• Sage have a dedicated Reviewer Gateway that houses all of the instructions and resources you need to contribute to this essential process, including a detailed breakdown of how to review articles and our Reviewer Rewards.
• In addition, we recommend the Web of Science Academy as a fantastic free resource providing training and guidance on all things peer-review.

Recognition for your peer-review service:

• Web of Science Researcher Profiles: As part of our commitment to supporting the reviewer community, we are partnered with Web of Science Reviewer Recognition, a service that gets you recognition for your peer review contributions.  We encourage all of our authors and reviewers and members of editorial teams to create a profile.
  • If you need to provide evidence that you have reviewed for a Sage journal, such as for funding, promotions, jobs, or green card applications, you can download your Web of Science CV as a record of your activity. Alternatively, you can share the email sent to you confirming your review has been received.
  • Web of Science Reviewer Recognition is a free service that enables you to effortlessly record, verify, and showcase your peer review contributions. Web of Science Reviewer Recognition records the number of papers you have reviewed for a journal while maintaining reviewer anonymity in accordance with each journal’s review policy. Our partnership with Web of Science Reviewer Recognition enables you to get recognition quickly and easily for your work.
  • For more information, please see the Web of Science Reviewer Recognition page or browse the Reviewer Recognition FAQs for reviewers.
• ORCID: You can also use ORCID to gain recognition for your reviews.
• Editorial Review Boards : In order to further improve the recognition and rewards we provide to our reviewers, a number of journals have created Editorial Review Boards. These are sub-sections of the Editorial Board whose primary responsibility is to peer-review for the journal, and they allow journals to better distribute the peer-review workload among the academic community, better engage with researchers earlier on in their career, ensure consistency, quality, and timeliness in peer review, and provide better recognition and reward for peer-review service.
• Other rewards: Every time you review for a Sage journal, you receive these reviewer rewards:
• 25% discount on all Sage books.
• Free access to Sage Journals for 60 days. This will give you access to content from 1999-present for more than 1000 journals across the humanities, social sciences, science, technical and medical fields, including new issues published during the free 60-day period.

How can I get involved with peer review at Sage?

• Register your interest as a reviewer:
  • Use the Sage journals site to identify the journal(s) you’d like to review for.
  • Contact the journal editor to indicate your interest and summarise your expertise.
  • Create a Web of Science Reviewer Recognition profile and register your interest in reviewing for specific journals.
  • To further increase your chances of being invited to review, see our full blog post on Steps to Strengthen Your Reviewer Profile.
  • Create an account for the journal via its submission site, using an institutional email address if possible, and provide your keywords.
  • Please visit the ‘How to Review Articles’ page on Sage’s Reviewer Gateway for more information.
•  Join an Editorial Review Board:
  • Information on the benefits of joining an Editorial Review Board, whether you are eligible to apply, and how you can apply, can be found here.