Peer review is essential to the quality of RDPub journals. Reviewers are asked to follow the principles below, which are based on COPE’s ethical guidelines for peer reviewers.
Accepting an invitation
Accept an invitation only if the manuscript is within your area of expertise, you have no conflict of interest and you can deliver the report on time (normally within two to three weeks). Please decline promptly otherwise, and suggest alternative reviewers if you can.
Writing the review
Assess originality, significance, methodological soundness, quality of data and analysis, clarity, the reference list and ethical compliance. Provide constructive, specific and courteous comments that help the authors to improve their work, and give a clear recommendation: accept, minor revision, major revision or reject. Confidential comments to the editor may be provided separately.
Confidentiality
Manuscripts are confidential documents. Do not share, discuss or use their content, and do not upload manuscripts or review materials to public generative AI tools.
Conflicts of interest and misconduct
Declare any conflict of interest. If you suspect plagiarism, data fabrication, duplicate publication or other misconduct, inform the editor confidentially.
Recognition
Reviewer reports are confidential. Only where a journal publishes a reviewer report do the licence terms described in the Publication Ethics page apply. Reviewers are acknowledged for their contribution without publication of their names alongside specific manuscripts.