Journal of Diseases - Reviewer Guidelines
Standards and expectations for peer reviewers.
Excellence in Peer Review
Peer reviewers serve essential gatekeeping roles ensuring Diseases publishes only rigorous, impactful research meeting high scientific standards. These comprehensive guidelines establish clear expectations for thorough, constructive, and timely manuscript evaluation that serves authors, editors, and readers effectively.
Your expert assessments help authors strengthen their work significantly while protecting readers and the scientific community from flawed, misleading, or poorly substantiated findings. Quality peer review maintains scientific integrity and advances disease research knowledge.
Review Responsibilities
Effective peer review requires careful reading, thoughtful analysis, and constructive communication skills applied consistently across all assigned manuscripts. Reviewers evaluate manuscript quality across multiple dimensions while providing feedback that genuinely helps authors improve their contributions regardless of ultimate publication outcome.
Scientific Evaluation
Assess research design appropriateness, methodology rigor, data analysis validity, and conclusion soundness for scientific quality and transparency. Evaluate critically whether findings contribute meaningfully to disease understanding, prevention strategies, or treatment development.
Constructive Feedback
Provide specific, actionable suggestions for improvement addressing both major concerns affecting validity and minor issues affecting presentation. Frame all criticism constructively, focusing on strengthening the manuscript rather than merely cataloging deficiencies without guidance.
Timely Completion
Complete reviews within agreed timeframes, typically fourteen to twenty-one days from invitation acceptance. Notify the handling editor promptly if delays become unavoidable so alternative arrangements can be made efficiently without disadvantaging authors.
Comprehensive Assessment
Address originality and novelty, methodology quality and appropriateness, results interpretation accuracy, clinical or scientific relevance, presentation clarity, and appropriate engagement with existing literature. Use structured review forms ensuring consistent evaluation coverage.
Ethical Standards
Peer review integrity depends absolutely on strict adherence to ethical standards protecting authors, preserving the scientific record, and maintaining public trust in research findings. All reviewers must follow Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines and journal-specific policies throughout the review process.
Strict Confidentiality
Treat manuscripts as strictly confidential documents throughout and after review. Never share content with colleagues for informal consultation, discuss submissions publicly, or use unpublished information for personal research advantage or competitive purposes.
Conflict Disclosure
Decline reviews immediately when you have personal relationships with authors, competitive research interests, financial conflicts, or institutional connections potentially compromising objectivity. Report any potential conflicts proactively to the handling editor before proceeding.
Objective Assessment
Base all evaluations solely on scientific merit and methodological appropriateness regardless of author nationality, institutional prestige, career stage, gender, or theoretical perspective alignment with your own views. Personal scientific opinions should not inappropriately influence recommendations.
Review Quality: Effective reviews appropriately balance major concerns affecting validity with minor suggestions improving presentation and clarity. All recommendations should reference specific manuscript sections with clear justification explaining why changes are needed and how they would strengthen the work.
Recognition: Reviewers demonstrating consistent quality, reliability, and constructive engagement may be invited to join our editorial board or participate in special recognition programs acknowledging exceptional contributions to peer review excellence.
