My philosophy being a journal reviewer

I was given the honor to review an article for an international journal few weeks ago. Being a reviewer, I have my own philosophy which governs me through the review process. Needless to say, the first and foremost reviewing criteria should be based on the guidelines specific by the journal publisher. At this stage, I read through the article word-by-word carefully. Identification of grammatical mistake, spelling error and layout format of the article is at top priority at this initial stage.

Next, reviewing of the article's content and research accuracy. My philosophy is that


"...every piece of research and article is valuable. We can never judge a book by its cover. It is always easier (or extremely easy) to criticize and condemn, than to create from scratch. The authors must have gone through a hard time in preparing the article, I presume (but this may not always be the case. There are authors who merely submit a very initial draft of article hoping that reviewers will help to pinpoint their mistakes without even bothering to proof-read the submission prior to sending)..."


Bearing this in mind, I review the accuracy of research methodology adopted by the author, and the appropriateness of result analysis. Publication of an article in international journal demands a strong conclusion at the end of the paper. It has to be sharp enough to reveal the importance and significance that this piece of article is going to bring into the existing knowledge.

Now, with the article completely reviewed, I am preparing a reviewer's report to be submitted to both the author and editor-in-chief. In the report, appraisal and credits are mentioned to encourage the merits of authors. Necessary corrections are attached, and comments are included to ease the authors in revising the article.

I have had this experience when I submitted an article to a local magazine publisher in the country few years ago. It was my very first time. The editorial committee, I have to say, is far from being professional despite having a great name for their magazine. Upon submitting the article, I waited for months without news. Several  attempts to email the editor remained unattended. Months later, I received the reviewed article from the editor. The remarks found in the report are words such as "Hate this word! Why do you keep on insisting on unnecessary plurals? Since when this word appears in English?" It is a very unethical comments from reviewers, I would say. Instead of improving the article, it seems more like an attack to the author. I was asked to revise the article as required. Revision is done, and I even extended the original article's content by double.

I resubmitted the article to the editor after being revised. I waited for few weeks. And 2 years later until now, the editor does not give me a clear feedback of the article's status. Is it accepted, published or being discarded already? No one knows. My email is unattended, again.

So bearing this lesson in mind, I keep telling myself that now being a reviewer, I will not let a single author whose paper is reviewed by me to undergo such uneasiness. I do my best in keeping my review as fair as possible. Bearing in mind that every piece of article is valuable, I will give improving comments to respective authors, even though their papers are rejected. It is hoped that they can further improve their papers, and have them sent to other journals once the papers are ready!

So folks, do not be afraid to write. I started-off writing years ago. The first few attempts are hard though, but if you are really interested in academic writing, do not give up. We can do it!

Good luck!