Reviewer FAQs

When you agree to review a manuscript for BJR, BJR|Case reports, BJR|Open, BJR|Artificial Intelligence or DMFR you will be sent an email advising you of your review due date. Each journal has a reminder system set up to remind you when your review due date is approaching and also when you are late.

The following outlines what you should do if you are unable to meet the deadline for the manuscript you are reviewing, or you are unable to submit your report for any other reason.

If you experience any of these issues, click on the relevant link for advice. Should you have any further questions not listed below, please contact [email protected]

I won’t be able to submit my report on time

If you believe at any time that you will not be able to submit by the review due date, please contact the editorial office at BJR - [email protected], BJR|Case reports - [email protected], BJR|Open - [email protected], BJR|Artificial Intelligence - [email protected] or DMFR - [email protected].

Alternatively, if you have been sent a first late reminder, please activate the “let us know if you need an extension” link which appears in the first reminder.

Please indicate the date by which you believe you will be able to submit your review.

This paper is not in my area of expertise

If you are invited to review a manuscript that is not in your area of expertise, please decline the invitation via the website and enter this as your reason for declining.

If you have already accepted the invitation but upon reading the manuscript consider that you do not have the expertise to review it, please contact the journal office at BJR - [email protected], BJR|Case reports - [email protected], BJR|Open - [email protected], BJR|Artificial Intelligence - [email protected] or DMFR - [email protected] who will de-assign you from the manuscript and notify the handling editor.

I don’t have the expertise to comment on every aspect of the paper

If you believe that there are aspects of the manuscript that you are not able to comment on, please note this in your comments to the editor.

In some cases, the editor may have invited you to comment on a particular aspect of the manuscript, and may have invited other reviewers able to comment on other aspects of the paper, so your comments would still be welcome. However, it is better to alert the editor in case other referees need to be approached to comment further.

I work closely with OR in the same hospital/university/institution as one or more of the authors

If you work closely with any of the individuals you believe to have authored the manuscript, this could represent a conflict of interest, so please raise this with the journal office: BJR - [email protected], BJR|Case reports - [email protected], BJR|Open - [email protected], BJR|Artificial Intelligence - [email protected] or DMFR - [email protected].

I have already reviewed/am reviewing this paper for another journal

If you have find you have already reviewed the manuscript for another journal, please contact the journal office at BJR - [email protected], BJR|Case reports - [email protected], BJR|Open - [email protected], BJR|Artificial Intelligence - [email protected] or DMFR - [email protected].

Should it transpire that the manuscript has been rejected by another journal, you may still be able to proceed with a review due to differing acceptance criteria between journals

However, if the article is still undergoing review at another journal we should be notified.

There are ethical issues I would like to raise

If you have concerns regarding plagiarism, research fraud or have other ethical concerns such as a possible conflict of interest, please contact the editorial office at BJR - [email protected], BJR|Case reports - [email protected], BJR|Open - [email protected], BJR|Artificial Intelligence - [email protected] or DMFR - [email protected] as soon as possible and we will inform the handling editor and advise you how to proceed.

Further information on ethical issues in publishing can be found on our Publishing Ethics page.

This paper requires expert statistical input

Statisticians are approached when a manuscript requires expertise regarding the statistics.

Please mention in your comments to editor if:

• you have concerns regarding the statistical content of a manuscript; OR

• you don’t feel qualified to comment on the statistical aspects of the paper.

I am having problems submitting online

If you are experiencing problems submitting online, please contact the editorial office at BJR - [email protected], BJR|Case reports - [email protected], BJR|Open - [email protected], BJR|Artificial Intelligence - [email protected] or DMFR - [email protected]. We will then send you a template to complete and return by email.

Reviewers are kindly requested not to email comments not entered onto the appropriate form to either the editorial office or the handling editor. This is because there are certain mandatory fields to complete which are included on the reviewer form template.

I tried to submit my report but I can no longer access the manuscript

If you find when you access the website that the manuscript is no longer available for review, please contact the journal office at BJR - [email protected], BJR|Case reports - [email protected], BJR|Open - [email protected], BJR|Artificial Intelligence - [email protected] or DMFR - [email protected].

The editor may have already proceeded with a decision; however, in circumstances where an editorial decision has been made but the author has not yet been notified, it is possible that your review could still be forwarded to the author. If this is the case, a reviewer template can be forwarded to you for completion via email.

The language in the paper is very poor

If you find the language in a manuscript is poor, you can raise this as a general point in your comments to the editor, particularly if you find it compromises your ability to comprehend and evaluate the text.

***Reviewers should concentrate on the scientific aspects of a manuscript and are not expected to provide a line by line correction of grammatical errors, many of which can be corrected at copy editing stage should a manuscript go on to acceptance.***