Before accepting a review
- Accept only when the manuscript is within your expertise.
- Declare any conflict of interest or relationship that could affect impartiality.
- Confirm that you can complete the review within the requested timeframe.
- Treat the manuscript and review process as confidential.
- Do not attempt to identify the authors or contact them directly.
What to evaluate
- Clarity of the research question, objective, and contribution.
- Appropriateness of study design, animal handling, sampling, methods, and statistical analysis.
- Completeness of ethical approvals, consent, welfare, data, and conflict statements.
- Quality of results, tables, figures, references, and interpretation.
- Whether conclusions are supported without overstatement.
Review tone
Reviews should be constructive, respectful, specific, and evidence-based. Confidential comments to editors should not contradict comments intended for authors.