How to...
Peer review

What is peer review?

Peer review plays a vital role in selecting the right manuscripts for publication. Here at Emerald, our editors and editorial teams work diligently to ensure that the research we publish is relevant, original, and compelling. To do this, they need a little help from other experts in the field and call on a pool of reviewers to assess the manuscript, and provide feedback on whether it should be edited, rejected or considered for publication immediately.

Why peer review?

Peer review has been around for a long, long time, but has evolved over the years into various forms. At Emerald, we mainly use double anonymous, meaning that the author and reviewer identities are kept anonymous from each other. This ensures the utmost impartiality when reviewers are assessing papers. We use peer review, to ensure that the research we publish is original, relevant, and verified by experts in the field. Our readers need assurance that what the research articles they are delving in to and quoting in their own publications, is trustworthy and quality.  

How does it work?

The process starts at desk check stage, where the Editors/Editorial team will assess the manuscript and ensure it is within scope for the journal in question. If the submission makes it through this step, it goes on to reviewer selection stage. The team selects reviewers from our database, who have similar expertise to those listed in the keywords on the paper. The reviewers are contacted and invited to review the manuscript. If the reviewers agree, they provide their comments to the editorial team, and the paper is then returned to the author for revision, is rejected, or accepted.

Find out more about how to review, and how to become a reviewer. You can also sign up to the Web of Science Academy to access training, resources, and tips on how to review.