Addiction and Health Guide for Reviewers

Peer review is the system for evaluating the quality, validity, and relevance of scholarly research. The process aims to provide authors with constructive feedback from relevant experts which they can use to make improvements to their work, thus ensuring it is of the highest standard possible. Addiction and Health adheres to a double-blind peer-review process that is rapid, fair, and ensures a high quality of articles published. In so doing, journal needs reviewers who can provide insightful and helpful comments on submitted manuscripts with a turnaround time of about 2-4 weeks.

How to Review a Manuscript via the Addiction and Health Portal?

As the first step in the review process, the editorial office sends a “request for review” email to the reviewers and provide them with the abstract of manuscript. Reviewers can then register via the Addiction and Health portal and get a Username and Password.

To complete the review process and to get access to the full text of manuscript, reviewers should login via the Addiction and Health portal then follow the instructions provided in below:

Reviewer Section--Pending Assignments--Click on the manuscript ID--Click on Manuscript Evaluation Form--Fill the form/attach the review file--Make the decision (Reviewer Recommendation) as to Accept, Minor Revisions, Major Revisions, Re-Submit or Reject--Push "Send to Editor" button.

Guidelines for Reviewers

To improve the quality of peer review process, reviewers can consider the following checklists for each type of study design:

• STROBE Checklist for CROSS-SECTIONAL studies | more info
• STROBE Checklist for CASE CONTROL studies | more info
• STROBE Checklist for COHORT Studies | more info
• STROBE Checklist for Observational studies | more info
• CONSORT Checklist for RANDOMIZED TRIALS | more info
• PRISMA Checklist for Systematic reviews and META ANALYSIS | more info
• Critical Appraisal of META ANALYSIS
• MOOSE Checklist for META ANALYSIS
• STARD Checklist for DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY | more info
• TREND Checklist for BEHAVIORAL and Public Health Interventions | more info
• REMARK Checklist for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies | more info
• COREQ Checklist for Qualitative Research: Interviews and Focus Groups | more info
• CARE Checklist for CASE REPORTS | more info
• AGREE Checklist for Clinical Practice GUIDELINES | more info

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

• Providing a concise and point-by-point review report the authors within the suggested deadline
• Making recommendations to the editor regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication in the journal
• Declaring to the editor any potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authors or the content of a manuscript you are asked to review
• Reporting possible research misconducts
• Treating the manuscript as a confidential document
• Not making any use of the work described in the manuscript
• Not communicating directly with authors, if somehow you identify the authors
• Not identifying yourself to authors
• Not passing on the assigned manuscript to another reviewer
• Ensuring that the manuscript is of high quality and original work
• Informing the editor if you find the assigned manuscript is under consideration in any other publication to your knowledge
• Writing review report in English only
• Authoring a commentary for publication related to the reviewed manuscript

What Should be Checked While Reviewing a Manuscript?

• Novelty
• Scientific reliability
• Originality
• Valuable contribution to the science
• Adding new aspects to the existed field of study
• Ethical aspects
• Structure of the article submitted and its relevance to authors’ guidelines
• References provided to substantiate the content
• Grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Scientific misconduct

What if you are unable to review?

Sometimes you will be asked to review a paper when you do not have sufficient time available. In this situation, you should make the editorial office aware that you are unavailable as soon as possible. It is very helpful if you are able to recommend an alternative expert or someone whose opinion you trust. If you are unable to complete your report on a paper in the agreed time-frame required by the journal, please inform the editorial office as soon as possible so that the refereeing procedure is not delayed. Make the editors aware of any potential conflicts of interest that may affect the paper under review.

Purpose and Rewards of Reviewers

In appreciation of your invaluable service to the Addiction and Health, reviewers who consistently exhibit excellent reviews and respond promptly to the editorial requests are awarded with a review certificate and are considered for invitation to the Editorial Board.