A Guide to Reviewing Articles for Patients and Family Members

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Contents

What is peer review?

Articles published in medical journals are reviewed by people with expertise in the topic being discussed. This process is called “peer review.” Peer review helps editors decide which articles to publish by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of submissions sent to the journal. At CMAJ, almost all articles we publish are peer reviewed.

The goals of this review process are:
(1) to help editors decide whether to publish a submission, and
(2) to help authors improve their manuscript.

If editors think an article submitted to the journal might be a good fit, they invite 2-3 people to read it and provide feedback. These people are called reviewers. CMAJ's review process is single-blind, which means that reviewers know who the authors are but the authors don't know who reviewed their article.

Editors have the final say in whether an article is published but their decision is informed by the feedback they receive from reviewers.

This short video is a good introduction to the overall process: Peer Review in 3 Minutes - YouTube

What do patient reviewers do at CMAJ?

“Patient reviewers” refers to patients, families, and caregivers who help CMAJ’s editors decide whether to publish an article. Like clinical or academic reviewers, they provide editors with feedback about how a submission’s focus, approach, and solutions can be improved.

CMAJ invites people to be patient reviewers if they have personal experience related to the topic discussed in the article. If reviewers accept this invitation, they are given two weeks to read the article and write their recommendations to the editors.

Who can be a patient reviewer?

If you are interested in being a patient reviewer, please join us!

Anyone can be a patient reviewer if they (1) are comfortable reading and writing in English, (2) have personal experience of the health condition or treatment being discussed and (3) do not have conflicts of interest with the article they are asked to review.

Clinicians or researchers with personal experience of a health condition are also welcomed as patient reviewers.

How can I become a reviewer?

Our editors match reviewers’ expertise and experience to the topic of the submission wherever possible. To be a patient reviewer, we will need information from you about the topics you are interested in reviewing.

Keyword search box on CMAJ’s submission page with the “Patient Reviewer” option selected. It is included to help reviewers create their profile on ScholarOne, the article submission platform that CMAJ uses.If you have submitted an article to CMAJ or CMAJ Open in the past, you are already on our list of reviewers. IMPORTANT: If you wanted to be considered as someone who can give a patient perspective, select “patient reviewer” as a keyword in your profile. You can also add other keywords to help our editors match you with relevant articles.

If you’ve never submitted an article to CMAJ or CMAJ Open, create a ScholarOne account here OR fill out this form to have us create an account for you.

How often will I be asked to review an article?

It’s hard to say! Each reviewer is usually only asked once or twice a year maximum. How often you are asked depends on the articles we receive and the number of people registered as reviewers.

I’ve been asked to review an article. Now what?

STEP ONE: Decide whether you want to accept the invitation

  • When a potential reviewer is asked if they are interested in reviewing a submission, the editor sends them a summary of the article (called an “abstract”).
  • After reading the abstract, you need to decide if you are (1) interested and have the expertise to review the article, and (2) available to write the review by the deadline. You also need to see if you have any conflicts of interest, like if you know the authors or work for a company related to the article, etc. If you have a conflict of interest, please decline the invitation.
  • The entire review process is confidential. You should not discuss the submission you have been asked to review with anyone else.

STEP TWO: Read the submission

  • Once you accept the invitation, the editor will send you the full article as well as a list of questions to consider. You don’t have to answer every question.
  • Reading a manuscript in detail and providing a constructive, thorough report takes time. Research articles can take 2–3 hours, but other types of articles may take less time.

STEP THREE: Write your review

STEP FOUR: Submit your review

  • Once you’ve finished writing your review, please submit it using the link provided in your original invitation email.

What should I include in my review?

Your review should include three parts:

  1. Your recommendation about what should happen to the article
    1. Choose one of the following options for your recommendation: that the article be accepted without changes (Accept), that the author should make changes to it and resubmit (Revise), or whether it shouldn’t be published at the journal (Reject).
    2. Only the editors will see your recommendation.
  2. Comments to the editor
    1. This includes confidential information that you don’t want the authors to see.
  3. Comments to the authors
    1. This is usually the longest section of the review.
    2. In this section, please tell the authors what they can do to make their article better if they are given the chance to revise it.
    3. It is rare for articles to be accepted without any changes. Even if you think the article is great and that no changes need to be made, please explain why this is the case. Knowing why can help editors understand where you are coming from if another reviewer didn’t feel the same way.

Editors would appreciate if patient reviewers could comment on:

  1. Are the authors talking about an issue that is important to people who deal with this condition?
  2. Are the authors saying anything new? If what the authors have written has been said many times before, CMAJ is less likely to publish this than if the authors are saying something new.
  3. Is there another question related to this problem that the article doesn’t address?
  4. How did the authors consider and account for the challenges that people face receiving care in Canada?
  5. Do you think the authors’ take-home messages will make a difference to the lives or treatment provided to people with these conditions? Why or why not?
  6. What is the article missing?
  7. If you are reviewing a Research article, the authors will have decided the success of their research by measuring a few different things (these are the “outcomes” of their study). Did they choose the right outcomes to measure?

You should not include your name anywhere in your review. All reviewers at CMAJ are anonymous.

You should not comment on grammar or spelling mistakes in the article unless it was very difficult to understand what the authors were saying (CMAJ’s editorial team will deal with these).

 

Articles sent to CMAJ often contain technical medical information or describe statistics. You are welcome to comment on these parts of the article, but you don’t have to. CMAJ will invite other reviewers with clinical or academic expertise who can review these parts of the article.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The editor may make a different decision about whether to publish an article than what you or reviewers recommend. CMAJ receives thousands of articles each year, but we can only publish a few hundred. Unfortunately, about 90% of submissions we receive are rejected. Even if an article is rejected, we hope that the feedback the authors receive from reviewers will make their article stronger and help it have a better chance of being published in a different journal.

 

What makes a good review?

  • The best reviews provide specific, clear, and constructive feedback to authors by telling them how they can make their article better.
  • The best reviews explain why the reviewer is asking the authors to make changes.
    • For example, writing “the author mentions xyz but doesn’t describe what it is or why it is important” instead of “you didn’t describe xyz” helps both the editors and authors understand what needs to be fixed.
  • Separating each comment into its own separate paragraph or bullet point makes it easier for authors and editors to read and understand the review.

I’ve submitted my review. Now what?

  • Thanks for submitting your review!
  • It might be a few weeks until you hear any updates. The editors wait until all the reviews are submitted before deciding what to do with the article.
  • Editors often blind copy reviewers in their response to the authors once they’ve made the final decision. If you don’t receive an email like this after a few months, please follow up with us!

What do reviewers receive in exchange for completing reviews?

Each year, CMAJ publishes the names of reviewers who’ve been involved in the journal to recognize and thank them for their work. Patient reviewers will be included in this list. You can find past lists of reviewers here.

Journals usually do not pay their reviewers. However, most academics or clinicians are paid indirectly through their work. We recognize that this may not be the case for patient reviewers. To promote equity between these groups, we compensate patient reviewers under certain circumstances. Patient reviewers completing these reviews will not receive compensation if they are employed as a clinician, researcher, or receive payment as a patient advocate.

I didn’t find an answer to my question. Who can I contact about this?

We are happy to help! Please contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions.

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