The art of reviewing journal articles and its advantages for reviewers

Abstract

Peer-review is one of the pillars of academic publishing and helps editors in selecting the best works. Reviewers serve as a jury that evaluates submitted manuscripts and helps fellow researchers to improve their work. Unfortunately, detailed instructions or dedicated courses for the best practices in manuscript reviewing are scarce. Then how should one go about reviewing a manuscript? More importantly, why should one serve as a reviewer? The aim of this essay is to answer both these questions by providing a step-by-step procedure for manuscript review and a list of advantages of being a reviewer.