The Spartan Medical Research Journal is currently looking for peer reviewers from all clinical specialties! If interested, please contact the SMRJ editorial office at smrj@msu.edu
Peer review is a critical component of scholarly publishing. Quality peer reviews provide important feedback regarding the originality, scientific impact, quality, and appropriateness of a manuscript. The editorial staff will use peer reviews to make a decision regarding whether to publish a manuscript.
Manuscripts submitted to the Spartan Medical Research Journal (SMRJ) are typically sent to 2 or 3 peer reviewers who are knowledgeable in the topic area of the manuscript. SMRJ uses a single-blind review system - in other words, the authors are revealed to the reviewers, but the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors.
SMRJ recommends that reviewers complete the following steps:
- If there is a potential conflict of interest (e.g., the author is a student or colleague of yours, or you have acted as an advisor to the project), please contact the Associate Editor.
- Read the manuscript carefully. Please feel free to refer authors to manuscript issues or problems by specific line numbers.
- Be objective in evaluating the manuscript and in writing your comments. Please avoid acrimony. Test your critique for fairness and objectiveness by asking yourself if you would be willing to sign it and send all of your comments directly to the author.
- Be specific in your comments to the authors. A comment such as “This manuscript is too long” will not be helpful to an author of an excessively long paper. Call attention to verbose or unclear writing.
- Consider each section of the peer review form carefully. Ideally, an accepted SMRJ paper would provide enough details for a general readership and/or for those readers who might consider replicating a similar project.
- Although you may feel inclined to edit the manuscript, it is more helpful to the SMRJ staff if instead you note that there are English problems, and focus on the data, interpretation, and missing information. SMRJ manuscript editors will correct errors in grammar and rhetoric before an accepted manuscript is published.
- Your SMRJ peer review includes an area for confidential comments to the editor, such as concerns regarding possible study fabrication or plagiarism.
- Remember that the manuscript is the property of the author. It is a confidential communication. It may not be used by you or shared with anyone except SMRJ editorial staff.
- Reviewers must not retain the manuscript for their personal use and are asked to destroy paper copies of manuscripts and associated materials, and delete electronic copies after submitting their reviews.
(Adapted from the ACS Style Guide, 3rd edition)
Updated: February 27, 2019 WCorser/SWisniewski
Updated: December 14, 2023 MFritz