Peer Review: How to Prepare and What to Write IJMSC Webinar 4

Peer review is the heart of scientific publishing, and reviewers help move a manuscript from rough draft to a polished resource for the MS community. In the final webinar of our series, editor in chief François Bethoux, MD, and associate editor Mary Alissa Willis, MD, discuss the work from the other side of the desk.

A first invitation intimidates almost everyone. Two rules help. Stay in your comfort zone and accept papers on topics you feel qualified to evaluate. Consider working with a mentor, which most journals, including IJMSC, allow as long as the team is disclosed to the editorial office. Editors would also far rather receive a prompt decline than wait for a review that never arrives.

When you review, read the manuscript more than once. Look for the story on the first pass, then work through a checklist section by section. Keep comments to the author specific, constructive, and polite, and use the confidential comments to the editor for concerns you do not wish to raise directly. The goal is to take a paper from good to great.

Reviewing is also a growth tool. Critical appraisal sharpens how you read evidence, and it helps you sort what you can use in practice now from what still needs stronger support.

Webinar 4 closes our series. The earlier episodes cover finding a question worth publishing, turning a conference poster into a manuscript, and conducting the literature review behind both. Interested in becoming a peer reviewer? Contact IJMSC journal administrator Charlene Belsole at belsolc@ccf.org.