How to become a peer reviewer

Contact the editor

Journal editors are always looking out for new reviewers, especially those with expertise in areas under-represented in the journal’s pool of contacts. If there’s a journal that you read regularly, email the editor directly.

Tell them about your areas of expertise, your publication record, and your interest in reviewing. If you attend any academic conferences, these are good opportunities to meet editors who might be looking for new reviewers.

Ask a senior colleague to recommend you

Is there someone who knows your work and is already involved with a journal or regularly reviews for it? Ask whether they would be willing to pass on your details to the editor.

They may also have some useful experience they can share with you from when they first became a reviewer.

Look out for calls for reviewers

Some journals make specific invitations for reviewers to get in touch. This might be the case if the journal is new or expanding its scope into a different area.

Register with the journal’s publisher

Some publishers invite aspiring reviewers to add their details to a reviewer database. For example, Dove Press has a reviewer registration page. Here, you can enter your research specialisms and select the journals you’d be interested in reviewing for.

Find a mentor

Ask a senior colleague, with experience in reviewing, whether you could work with them on a review. Some journals also run mentoring schemes, designed to help support first-time reviewers.

Get visible on researcher networking sites

Academic networking sites, such as ResearchGate or Academia, are opportunities to build a profile that editors looking for new reviewers can find. If your university department has a website, make sure you are visible here, too.

Make sure that your profile includes lots of detail about your current areas of research. You should also add links to any published journal articles or books. When you begin to build your publication record, consider registering on sites like ORCID, Clarivate Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar, and regularly check your record in the literature databases used in your field to make sure it is correct and up to date.

Write a paper

Many journals add authors who have published with them to their database of reviewers. While you’re unlikely to write a paper just for the opportunity to review, submitting a research paper or book review is a good way to become part of the community around that journal.

It also means the editor is more likely to invite you to review when they receive a submission on a related topic to your own.

Take part in training

Our Excellence in Peer Review: Taylor & Francis Reviewer Training Network was launched in 2019 to support researchers in becoming more effective peer reviewers. This training network aims to give clear practical advice to researchers to improve the quality of the reviews they provide, as well as introduce the key principles to those who are newer to the review process.

Participants who have the expertise to become reviewers and who would like further experience have the opportunity to be linked with journals within their subject area at the end of the training.

For more ideas to get you started, Diana Marshall, former Head of Reviewer Programs at Taylor & Francis shared her five tips for becoming a peer reviewer.

Attend conferences

Giving presentations or participating on panels at conferences will help to raise your profile within your field and can bring you to the attention of journal editors.

Networking at conferences is also a great way to develop relationships with journal editors or editorial board members.