Guidelines for reviewing a Manuscript

Note: This draft version 0 is applicable since 01/01/2015, pending approval by the Board of Directors and the General Assembly. Next version.

Every member is welcome to express her/his opinion on a Manuscript currently under Review in the form of a Review report. Whether you have been assigned the review of a Manuscript or not, the following will guide you through the process of writing and submitting a Review report for a Manuscript.

  1. You can submit a Review report only while the Manuscript is in the “Awaiting Review Reports” status. If you have received an invitation to act as Referee for a Manuscript and have replied positively, please wait until the Editor confirms your assignment by email. If you see the Manuscript in the “Awaiting Review Reports” status and you have not received your confirmation of assignment (please check your SPAM folder), then this means that you were not assigned the review of this Manuscript. This can happen, don’t worry, and if you want, you can still submit a Spontaneous Review report for that Manuscript.
  2. To submit your Review report, simply log-in, and go to the corresponding Manuscript page. If the Manuscript is in the “Awaiting Review Reports” status, you will find a link to submit a Review report. In some cases the link will not show up, such as for instance if you are Author or Editor of that Manuscript, or if we identified another possible conflict of interest. Please contact the Administrator at the email address below if you think this is an error.
  3. Before preparing your Review report, please check that you comply with the Conflicts of Interest Rules.
  4. Upon writing your Review report, please keep in mind the following important points:
    • Your Review report must give a candid feed-back on the Manuscript, reflecting your own perspective. Different Referees have different perspectives, and taken together, they will help improve the Manuscript.
    • Non-scientific Referee’s feed-backs are essential for helping make Manuscripts understandable by a large public. Say what you understand and what you don’t understand. This will enormously help the authors and the entire Climanosco project.
    • Scientific Referee’s feed-backs are essential for helping make Manuscripts reflect state-of-the-art science, even as written in non-scientific language. Your feed-back is key to maintaining the highest scientific standard.
    • Review reports that contain litigious, aggressive or overly critical statements, or any personal critic will be removed.
  5. The Review report will contain the following sections:
    • Title: Anything will do (for instance: “Review Report”)
    • Identification of Review Report: Select as appropriate. If you have not been assigned this review, please select “Spontaneous Review”.
    • Ratings and Recommendations: Please read the Evaluation criteria for Peer-Review. The criteria that you will be able to rate depends on whether you are an assigned or a spontaneous Referee. Spontaneous Referees do not have to rate all proposed criteria. Note that Recommendations are only required from assigned Referees.
    • Review Report: This is what Authors will read when they will work on improving their Manuscript. Please explain here the reasons for your ratings, especially if you gave any “fair” or “poor” rating, and describe what you think should be improved and possibly how it can be improved.
    • Geographical Sectors and Subject Areas: Please check all Geographical Sectors and Subject Areas that the Manuscript covers, and if necessary propose new ones. This is only required for assigned Referees.
    • Anonymous Review Report: You can decide to keep your report anonymous if you prefer, although we do not recommend it for transparency reasons. If you do not check this box, your name will be displayed to the members as one of the Referees on this Manuscript page. Note that the Published Article – the version which will be visible to the public after the Manuscript is finalized – will not display any names of Referees anyway. Referee Reports are accessible to members only and do not become publicly visible.
  6. Finally, please check the Obligations for Reviewers.

In case of a problem or if anything needs clarification, don’t hesitate to contact the Administrator:

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