Dear Dr.Alcade C. Segnon,

If the content of the manuscript matches your Skills and expertise and if you are free, you may accept to review that manusript.

The best way is to see the impact factor of the journal, but for a start you can start reviewing journals with low IF points to gain experience. 

Its good that you have openly raised this question. The first thing is being a junior researcher you should immediately accept the invitation for peer review. Reviewing gives you lot of information explained in the paper and also in the field of study.

Before start reviewing you should completely read the paper first to understand it. Then read once again for critically reviewing, you accept the content or if you feel that there must be some improvement suggest it, if the paper reveals something which you are first time come across, you may need to  do a literature survey. You should carefully read every section, viz, introduction  presentation and organization of the  paper, illustration and references. Once if you start reviewing one or two paper you will become familiar with peer review. Keep going.. 

One caveat before proceeding to review a paper. I would recommend that you check the quality and the academic standing of the journal first. 

Check whether this is a predatory publication. Normally, these would solicit papers online, are not included in reliable databases, have no reputable indexing and would publish anything that comes along for a fee. These journals ask researchers to review a paper even when the researcher's specialization is widely different from the paper submitted. 

I do not think that a beneficial for a young researcher scientific experience can be gained from being a reviewer in such a situation.  

Best wishes,

Larisa

Dear friends,  thanks for your contributions.

To sum up your comments, early career researchers can gain benefits from doing peer review. It is a capacity building and career development opportunities for them.

The quality of the journal is a key factor to consider before accepting an invitation to peer review a manuscript. The academic standing of the journal can be assessed by its impact factor, the reliability of the databases in which it is included and its indexing, etc.

So, apart the academic standing of the journal, which other factors need to be considered in the decision-making about accepting or declining the invitation?

Greetings

It is very good to review articles for journals but if you don't have much information at hand, I would like to suggest that you take some courses with Elsevier Publishing Campus or Public Knowledge Publishing Campus www.pkp.sfu.ca

Hi Samuel,

Thank you for your suggestion.

Regards,

Alcade

Dear all,

I just come across this interesting blog by Science Careers, the careers component of the journal Science and produced by AAAS. I think it can be very useful to update our discussions on the decision-making on accepting (or not) an invitation to review a paper, and most importantly how to go about.

The blog is at the link below for your perusal.

http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/09/how-review-paper?utm_source=sciencemagazine&utm_medium=facebook-text&utm_campaign=reviewpaper-7757

Thanks

Alcade

Dear Dr.Alcade C. Segnon,

If the content of the manuscript matches your Skills and expertise and if you are free, you may accept to review that manusript.

Outstanding comment as usual dear Dr. Samuel Kehinde Oyeniyi , your advice was very excellent to follow the Elsevier official site.

Emad

It is easy to decide. If you are competent you accept. If there is a conflict of interest you refuse.

You may accept the invitation, read the manuscript carefully, comment on the strength and weakness points of the manuscript and conclude/finalize your decision. You may ask a professor to check your review report before submission.

If it is not a predatory publication, and it is a subject with which you have experience/expertise, I think it is appropriate for a junior faculty member to accept as many offers as you have time for.

It 1) adds to your CV in the "service" category, 2) lets you see how scholarly articles are written, and 3) stimulates your critical thinking about quality academic writing.

As I advanced in my career (I am now a senior faculty member), I became more selective in which journals I agree to review for. Usually they are high-quality journals in which I have previously been published.