Reviewing and Scoring a Manuscript

The Reviewer Center

If you agree to review the manuscript, access the manuscript and scoresheets through your Reviewer Center. Log in to Manuscript Central and click your Reviewer Center link.

View Manuscripts page

This page consists of two sections: Review & Score and Scores Submitted.

Sorting

You can sort the list by clicking on any (linked) column header. In the example above, the both lists are sort by date, in ascending order. Reverse sort by clicking the column header again.

Review & Score section

This section lists manuscripts for your review.

• Manuscript ID - Journal's system-generated identification number
• Title - includes a link to view the manuscript
• Due Date - Date review is due to the journal
• View Details - click  to access the review process

Scores Submitted section

This section lists those manuscripts that you have already sent reviews on.

• Manuscript ID - the journal's system-generated identification number
• Title - includes a link to view the manuscript
• Date Completed - date review was sent back to the journal
• Status - current status in the peer review process and any correspondence
• View Details - click  to access details of your review

 

To begin reviewing the manuscript, click  to open the Review Manuscript page

 

The Review Manuscript Page

This page contains three tabs to use when reviewing manuscripts:

• Instructions
• Details
• Score Sheet

Manuscript Header

A summary header appears at the top of each tab.

The header contains the following:

• Manuscript title
• Manuscript ID
• Authors - including co-authors and flagging contact author
• Date Submitted - date manuscript was submitted to the journal
• Total Time in Review - time manuscript has been in the peer review process
• Status - who has the manuscript (you) and what stage the manuscript is in

Viewing proofs

View proofs by clicking the proof icons (see topic).

Performing external searches

Click  to display the following popup box:

Select checkboxes in the Search On section, then select one/all of the Search Across search engine choices.

Note: Selecting more than one search engine opens the appropriate number of browsers displaying the results.

Instructions Tab

This page provides journal-specific instructions for your review. Be sure to read these instructions prior to scoring the manuscript.

Details Tab

This tab displays manuscript details and any version history.

Clicking a named link opens an email to that person.

Score Sheet Tab

The score sheet tab presents you with the customized score sheet for the journal. This includes journal-specific questions, a recommendation field, comments to the author, confidential comments to the editor, and possibly the ability to attach a file.

About the Comments section

There are a couple of things to be aware if you plan to enter a large amount of information in the Comments fields:

• Save your work often! Manuscript Central has an automated time-out feature that will log you out if you are on the same screen for over 75 minutes. If you plan on working on your review for long periods, we recommend you work in a text editor, then copy and paste your work or attach the file.
• Use a plain-text editor. Copying and pasting text from Word may create some issues on the other end, where your Comments to Author are sent to the author inside the Decision Letter email. In order to display properly for the largest percentage of email users, the Comments fields use "plain text." Therefore, using a plain text editor such as WordPad or Notepad may cause fewer formatting issues than Word.

Attach a File

Attach files as needed by browsing to the file and clicking . Manage attachments from the Files Attached section.

 

There are three buttons at the bottom of the page:

• Click  to save the score sheet without sending it to the editor.
• Click  to saves the score sheet and sends it to the editor.
• Click  to opens a popup window with a printable version of the score sheet.

 

When you submit your review, the manuscript moves to the Scores Submitted section of your Reviewer Center. You will be able to view the final decision from the journal editorial staff in the status column.

 

Reviewing Proofs

A summary header appears at the top of each Review tab. The header contains the links for viewing the manuscript files in a variety of ways, depending on journal preference.

HTML proof

Click  to view the manuscript files through your browser. HTML also allows automatic linking to external databases such as PubMed.

 

The files display separately to the left of the main document. There is also a link for viewing the cover and the author-supplied metadata. Click the links to view the individual files.

You can use ScholarOne Image Spy to proof your images more carefully. This link displays at the bottom of all image files:

The image opens in an Image Spy window and instructions for use are displayed.

PDF proof

Clicking  allows you to view and print the concatenated files in Adobe Acrobat.

 

By default, the first page of the proof is the cover and metadata, with the concatenated files appearing after. Displays are configurable by the journal.

Supplementary Files

This links to files sent by the author along with the manuscript submission.

Abstract

Clicking  displays the manuscript abstract.