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.
On this page
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 the research articles they are delving into and quoting in their own publications are trustworthy and quality. Peer review also provides feedback and areas to improve for researchers, building a community of trust between peers.
How does it work?
The process begins with an initial assessment of your paper by a member of the editorial team who will 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 with a decision and editorial and reviewer comments.
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.