Reviewer Guidelines

Before accepting

Accept an invitation only if you have the relevant expertise and can meet the requested deadline. Declare financial, professional, institutional or personal relationships that could affect impartiality. Decline where a conflict cannot be managed, and notify the editor if a conflict becomes apparent later.

Preparing the report

Assess the research question, design, sampling, measurements, analysis, ethical safeguards, interpretation and reporting. Distinguish essential changes from optional suggestions. Provide specific, respectful comments supported by reasons. Evaluate conclusions against the evidence and identify limitations or unsupported claims. Recommend citations only where directly relevant; do not seek citations to improve personal or journal metrics.

Confidentiality and integrity

Manuscripts and review correspondence are confidential. Do not use unpublished information for personal advantage, contact authors directly, or share a manuscript with others without editorial permission. Do not upload manuscript text, data, images or reviews to public generative AI services. If assistance is authorized, the editor must know who contributed and appropriate confidentiality must be maintained.

Report suspected plagiarism, data problems or ethical concerns privately to the editor with supporting details. Do not investigate participants or make allegations to authors. Submit an independent recommendation and disclose any limitations of your assessment.