Invitation to volunteer as reviewer


Help bring climate science into focus for everyone.

Climanosco’s mission is to make climate science accessible to everyone. One way we do this is by inviting researchers to write short manuscripts about climate research in a way which is readily understandable to you.

This spring 2018, at the request of Climanosco’s community, we are asking climate scientists to submit manuscripts on impacts and phenomena of climate change from a climate science perspective in areas of relevance to humans.

Topics may include heatwaves, droughts, sea level rise, floods, landslides, air, water and soil pollution, water or food production / scarcity, and infectious diseases.

We’d like to invite you to join the effort by signing up as an accessibility reviewer for this spring 2018 call for manuscripts.

Volunteering as reviewer is fun, easy and makes you part of an exciting, worldwide community. As an accessibility reviewer you will provide feedback on the manuscripts to ensure that text is engaging and readily understandable to a broad audience. No specific expertise required – everyone welcome (if you are a climate scientist though, we’d rather invite you to volunteer as a science reviewer or as an editor).

Participating will be as fun as reading a letter from a friend explaining an exciting experiment to you, and giving a friendly feedback on what you liked and what you understood about it. It will be as easy as filling a short online survey with a few clicks.

We would be thrilled if you could let us know of your intention to participate as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you,

The Climanosco team

Additional information

Who can participate?

Everyone is welcome to participate as an accessibility reviewer (if you are a climate scientist though, we’d rather invite you to volunteer as a science reviewer or as an editor).

What does it cost?

  • Participation is all free of charges, including registration, access to manuscripts and peer review documents, and submission of your review.
  • Articles are published in open access by Climanosco.

What’s the publication process?

  • One of our scientific editors will take in charge the manuscript after its submission.
  • The manuscript is then peer reviewed on both scientific and accessibility levels.
  • Once accepted for publication, the article will be published in open access on our web site.
  • A collection booklet will be published for this call and shipped on request to the participants for free.

Deadlines (extended):

  • Notify us of your intention to participate as soon as possible
  • Manuscripts will be submitted by: 15 May 2018 (extended from 1 May)

Contacts:

About Climanosco:

Climanosco is an open, independent, non-profit organisation led by climate scientists and citizens aiming at making climate science accessible to everyone. We registered the organisation in Switzerland in 2015 as an association and have a growing number of members from around the world. We are building a platform for the interaction between citizens and climate scientists where scientists can reach out and citizens can raise questions, access to knowledge and get involved in making science accessible. This is a bottom-up initiative set to make a change by raising climate literacy around the world.

How to participate

1. Let us know that you want to participate

Send us an email as soon as possible at call-spring2018@climanosco.org

2. Register with Climanosco

To get access to manuscripts and peer review panels, please register as a Climanosco member at www.climanosco.org/register.

Registration is free of charge for all participants of this call. Registration can be cancelled anytime. We require that reviewers be registered with Climanosco for the duration of the publication process for a successful publication to ensue.

3. Participate as accessibility reviewer

Here is a short summary of our peer review process and how you can participate as accessibility reviewer.

You may review one or several manuscripts. We ask you to not accept manuscripts from authors you have personal relationships with (see our Conflict of Interest Policy). The manuscripts are to be reviewed according to our Peer review criteria for manuscripts.

Preliminary discussion (2-4 weeks): Manuscripts first enter in a 2-week preliminary discussion where you can give a first feed-back to the authors, along with other members. Authors have another 2 weeks to edit their manuscript and finalize their submission. This step may be skipped for returning first authors.

Assignments (1-2 weeks): A scientific editor takes in charge the manuscript and chooses the science and accessibility reviewers as required. This is where you might be contacted by the editor.

Open blind review (3 weeks): You, along with other reviewers, have three weeks to write your review report on the manuscript. As accessibility reviewer, you will be asked to evaluate accessibility, relevance and presentation.

Open discussion (2 weeks): You, along with all members, can give last feed-backs on the manuscript.

Revision (4-6 weeks): Based on the review reports and the open discussion, the editor gives a recommendation to the authors for the revision of the manuscript. Authors then revise the manuscript online and submit an author’s reply. Based on the revised version the editor takes a final decision as to the publication.

Publication (1-2 weeks): Last proof-reading and editing, followed by publication on Climanosco’s web site.

Selection of best manuscripts: If you wish, you may be candidate for election to the jury by the Board of Directors. The jury is composed of an equal number of members who are registered climate scientists and who are not. As a jury member, you will participate to the selection of the three best manuscripts of the call for manuscripts.

For more details on how to prepare your review:

For more details on our peer review and publication process:

Don’t hesitate to contact us at the email address above if you have any question.

4. Disclaimer

We might adjust the deadlines for the submission of the notifications of intent and the submission of manuscripts depending on the response we receive.

Depending on the number of expected or submitted manuscripts, we might also separate them in successive streams.

All participants will be notified in due time of any such adjustments.

Manuscripts not participating to this thematic call can be submitted anytime to Climanosco, but they will be streamlined as editors and reviewers become available. We thank all participants for their patience.