I am getting unusual requests to accept " a peer review" from "journals" I never interacted with previously.
Could such emails be actually a fraud or phishing email?
How to identify a legitimate peer review request?
Peer review invitations are very rarely, if at all, fake/predatory, (as opposed to invitations for being a keynote speaker or submission. Being on the editorial team for a couple of journals (BMC Public Health and Journal of public Health Management and Practice), I know journals get a fairly high rates of rejections to peer-review requests. Researchers are genuinely busy, some too busy for an uncompensated service such as peer review. Therefore journals are constantly trying to expand their peer-reviewers' pool.
Phishing emails? Not explicitly! Some journals (classified as non-predatory) give room for suggestions of potential reviewers by authors. It is possible that the authors recognized your contribution to the field and suggested you to the journal. They probably got your email from some of your published papers they are probably citing. Nonetheless, it is always better to confirm from their website for legitimacy.
Peer review invitations are very rarely, if at all, fake/predatory, (as opposed to invitations for being a keynote speaker or submission. Being on the editorial team for a couple of journals (BMC Public Health and Journal of public Health Management and Practice), I know journals get a fairly high rates of rejections to peer-review requests. Researchers are genuinely busy, some too busy for an uncompensated service such as peer review. Therefore journals are constantly trying to expand their peer-reviewers' pool.
Thanks for sharing your insights!
The thing I noticed in the email I received that opening the email generated automatic reply process that I did not request. Therefore I got suspicious, and wanted to share this with you.
I think some journals are on the constant lookout for new authors and they have access to some of the most recent publications relevant to their journal. Thus they solicit not only articles for submission but also requests to be a reviewer. It does not mean that the journals are predatory. First go to their website and check out their credentials, impact factor as well as the most recent issue before accepting any invitations.
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