How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Providing informal peer review
How to provide peer review
Other topics in scientific communication

Because of your knowledge of science and of writing, you may be asked to comment on drafts before submission. Such reviewing can be a valuable service, especially to students, junior colleagues, and others who may not be thoroughly versed in English-language scientific communication. The following suggestions can aid in providing such informal peer review.

Find out what level of review is being sought. For example, is the draft an early one, and thus is the author seeking feedback mainly on content and organization? Or is the draft nearly final, so that the time has come to comment on the finer points of expression? Although you should feel free to note problems on other levels, knowing the type of feedback sought can help you make appropriate use of your time.

Consider serving a criticism sandwich: praise, then criticism, then praise. Also, show sensitivity to the author’s feelings in other ways. For example, express criticisms as perceptions rather than facts (“I found this section hard to follow” rather than “This section is totally unclear”). And criticize the work, not the person (“This draft seems to contain many punctuation errors,” not “You have a dreadful command of punctuation”). If you are providing feedback electronically on a manuscript, use word-processing features such as Track Changes in Microsoft Word, or distinguish comments by placing them in triple brackets or using colored type, italics, or boldface. Avoid typing comments in all capital letters, which can give the impression that you are screaming. Similarly, if you write comments on hard copy, consider using green ink, which seems friendlier than red ink but also tends to be easy to notice.

Through providing informal feedback, you are teaching: By following your suggestions, authors can both improve their current drafts and become better writers in the long run. And by assimilating what you say and how you say it, they themselves can learn to be better peer reviewers in both the informal and the formal sense.