In my opinion, it can be a beneficial experiment for a PhD student that he/she try to review research articles from reputed journals, but it is very important and necessary to be an expert in the topic of article that the mentioned student want to be as a reviewer. as Prof. Eraldo Banovac told, " say no thanks if the topic doesn’t belong to the field of your expertise."

Regards,

Mehdi

Dear Mahamad,

It depends on your fields of expertise.

If you are mastery somewhere, then why not to review articles relevant to that area?

(Provided that you have enough time for that work)

Personally I have found that even 'big names' have almost obvious math errors in their submitted articles.

Try it!

Of course.

The editors of the journals probably thought that you were one of the persons who had enough knowledge to review articles judging from your papers published in those journals. If so, you are qualified to accept the requests of reviewing.

Dear Mahamad,

Certainly, ... Yes!

Any PhD student should become THE expert on his subject. It should be part of his job to review any possible reference to his subject before presenting his thesis. In this sense, that PhD student should be the most qualified person to perform a bibliografic review on his subject.

Of course, we all know the feeling of insecurity and humbleness that comes as part of the job of those that research honestly on any subject. Knowing too much, gives you the intelligent feeling of knowing nothing...

This is my point of view.

Kind regards, and wishing you the best of luck, M.

In my opinion, it can be a beneficial experiment for a PhD student that he/she try to review research articles from reputed journals, but it is very important and necessary to be an expert in the topic of article that the mentioned student want to be as a reviewer. as Prof. Eraldo Banovac told, " say no thanks if the topic doesn’t belong to the field of your expertise."

Regards,

Mehdi

Dear Mahamad Nabab Alam, Salaam. I would like to describe your question as the outcome of honest and inquisitive soul.

PhD students are advised not to make any evaluation of past literature tagging them as good or bad; but to review the past literature contributed by the experts of the concerned area for gaining a good understanding and building a framework to further the research on the basis of the framework built in so far. It is indispensable for identifying the research gap in the given area of PhD topic. The review of the literature also significantly help the PhD student gain better picture of the research methodology (including the research approach, sampling plan, questionnaire-structuring and analytical tools) as they can so learn from the past works. My best wishes to you. Congrats

Dear Mahamad,

Thank you for the invitation. I understand your concern. It has a logical basis. But, in agreement with the majority of the colleagues, my answer to your question is yes. If you feel, after an invitation for review, that you are able to manage the situation successfully, accept the invitation and review the manuscript. Surely, the conducting of a review is beneficial, from many points of view, for the Ph.D student (and not only). In addition, regarding your phrase 'I think that a Ph.D. student should ot judge an article of another Ph.D. student or an expert', please bear in mind, that the editors of the reputed journals, finally, decide on the acceptance of not of the reviewed manuscript/s and also, they evaluate the respective review/s.

Regards 

Hi,

Sometimes , when you volunteer to review articles, the journal's editors assign you to more and more reviews, and this is time consuming.

To answer this question I assume that the Ph. D. student is working on the same field and has publication(s) in the same journal. Normally this assumption is valid because the editor assigns a paper for review to them who have authored papers published in that journal. Since the student is working in the same field and being young (better reflex) (s)he will be able to detect errors more easily. However, so far as the final decision is concerned there is a possibility of making mistake. Because (s)he may not be able to judge the importance of the achievement made in the paper. Normally there are more than one assigned reviewers for a paper.  If one of them is a Ph.D. student then I feel that the correctness issues will be addressed more efficiently and the ultimate outcome will be better. Editor can take the final decision by comparing all the reports.

I would suggest to review in relevant subject wherever available and not in repute status acclaimed ones.

Good question, off course YES.

Of-course, yes, if topic of interest for them and for reviewing the research paper.

i am myself  a PHD student and also the reviewer of many good class journals, it benefited me in improving my scientific language and keeps me updated about the recent research trends in my expertise area. so choice is yours ......

Dear Dr. Gordon,

Dear All,

There is always the choice in which a reviewer may decline to review a manuscript due to several reasons, e.g. heavy load. Many times, I have declined to review a manuscript and vice versa.

Regards

Certainly that research published in prestigious journals. ًIt considered an important source and reliable for the PhD student. where by these journals it can know the time period of progress in the subject or idea on which it runs.

Concentrate on your topic. If there is any opportunity selection should be based that article is very close to your project

Yes they can gain a lot of knowledge from this source. Sometimes there are good articles that give direction to the study and may also be helpful in determining different parameters.

Well reviewing an article like marking a paper is very difficult and time consuming if done right and the easiest thing if done otherwise. it is game of conscience.It is the sense of duty towards the greater cause of progressing the knowledge and the understanding of the human society. Alas! most of science today is just about the awards and name recognition rather than pure motive of learning and improvement of the society. 

I agree with all of what is written above. Reviewing an article if you do it correctly (select the paper well and spend as much time as you can to evaluate the article on merit ) can be very helpful. 

@Peter Breuer, I agree with your observations regarding the EE community. The quantity of research seems to dominate the quantity in this field(not every where but it is alarming). This flood of information a significant portion of which is half cooked and some just outright wrong is hampering the progress of the community. It is becoming increasingly difficult for a young researcher to filter out the quality work with out a lot of help.

Dear Mahamad,

Thanks for your invitation.

Reviewing a paper as a referee by a PhD student may not be a fair practice because being a judge for a final decision requires experiences in the related fields.  Since a PhD student should gain experience for future practices, the review task may be  accepted from journals under the supervision of the supervisors, not otherwise.

Yes, of reputed journals by IF or of not IF. The review of preceeding articles is necessary to advance because without base it is difficult to build science of nothing.

I agree with the submission of others that a PhD student can review articles provided such articles are in his/her field and he/she has enough time to devote. I had reviewed many papers for some highly reputable journals even when I was yet to bag my PhD degree. I think what matters most is your intelligence, experience and mastery of the subject matter.

After getting the first chance to review a paper from IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, I discussed this with my supervisor, he advised me that it will be very much time taking as you have to go through it sincerely. Further, he told me that as you are a student so it is not good to review works that may be from experts. Also, it would be good if you concentrate on your own work rather than reviewing manuscripts. After that discussion, I declined to review the paper. 

After two months, once again I got an invitation to review another paper from the same journal, once again discuss the matter with my supervisor, he advised me to decline one again by selecting the option that not available. Once again I did the same.

However, I thought that it may have been good if I have reviewed that papers as they belong to my research area. After that, I have not got any invitation to review papers from that journal. However, I used to get many invitations from journals from Elsevier and Springer. And, these invitations make me feel that I should do the review as one day I must have to do if I have to be in academics.

Dear Mahamad,

Do the job, but after gaining enough experience. 

Good Luck !

Faramarz

Dear Mahamad,

Thank you for this interesting question. I think it depends on the individual PhD student. Some are better prepared to review than others. Additionally, if the paper cannot be understood by a PhD student, it will not be useful to very many people.

So PhD student can give his opinion if he/she has enough experience in the field to obtain additional independent perspectives on a manuscript. 

Youcef,

Dear Mahamad,

This is an interesting question. Like other RG members already said, it's not wrong to ask PhD students to review research articles. It all depends on whether the PhD student has an acknowledged expertise in the area of interest and whether they are confident enough to do the needful. By acknowledged expertise I mean, a good publication in a relevant peer-reviewed journal in the field of interest. I personally think having a sufficiently knowledgeable PhD student peer-review a research article is a win-win situation. A standard PhD student may have read dozens of papers, book chapters, and other relevant works in their area. They are therefore, au fait on the existing gap in that field and can conveniently (within the bounds of honesty and moral uprightness) pass a judgement on what is novel and what is not. Also, a PhD student usually views an article under review from the lens of the student he is. If an article is not simple and clear enough for a PhD student to find worthy of a genuine knowledge source, then, it probably is of no use to the scientific community. The PhD student on the other hand, improves their mastery of their field, as well as writing skills.

Dear Colleagues,

In my view , I see nothing wrong  PhD student reviewing an article, the expertise is what matter most, The issue is that he may need to be guided by an expertise, usually a supervisor in that field, a learning curve for the student in the future . Which i agree with Demetris.   

Why not, I see nothing wrong.  

 i see nothing wrong..why not...

I believe it is no wrong for a Ph. D. student to review research articles from reputed journals if the researcher can master the field of the article. This may increase her/his experience.

Thank you so much, Dr. Peter Breuer, for giving one of the most impressive answers to this question. I fully agree with your all the points discussed. 

Surely, I would like to have your points in my mind before I will accept or reject a paper for reviewing.  Once again I like to thank you for answering this question clearly and in so details.

with best regards,

MN Alam

Why not, I see this may increase his experience.

More reading is always better, who told you it is not good for you? You can decline the request only if you have been asked to give your comments and the field does not belong to you, otherwise read more to increase your knowledge.

Dear Mahamad,

If the Chief editorial board invited you to do it, it would be a great honour, privilege and pleasure for you.It's chance to learn.

It depends on how much expertise that PhD student has accumulated, as evidenced through publication record, making a good impression at conferences, etc. It also depends on the number of reviewers that editor will commission - if there will be three reviewers, and one of them is a PhD student, the risks are sufficiently hedged. See also this short paper with the epistemic logic of the peer-review process: familiarity with that logic should help when deciding: 

Article Error, quality, and applied geography: An editorial on process

I think it's good idea for a supervisor of PhD student to give his student some papers for review as a training materials specially at the end of this student study for PhD to give this student sufficient experience in scientific criticism.

To me it is very important, because the PhD student will add more value to himself/her self and also gain experience, especially in his or her core area of competency.

Yes, it is absolutely necessary.

A good revision requires time and experience in the field. A PhD student has not got both of them usually. I think that a good evaluator or referee/reviewer needs much time of perseverant work in your area of research. A student is in the begining of this hard and long way.

Yeah it's good if he is reviewing a super standard work.

If you are, for instance, a PhD student in solid state physics, it would be above and beyond your call of duty to read articles in gravitational or elementary particle physics.

However, it would certainly be beneficial for you to read / study / review some articles related to solid state physics that sparked your intellectual curiosity. You will learn the standards of logic, prove, methodology, and achievements in your field - all are necessary to become a PhD. 

Unfortunately academic researches promote various aspects which are of no use to a research contribution, namely

Dear Khan,

There are very good professionals who are not teachers or professors. Many doctors can review research articles. If a professor have, for example, six doctors under his direction, these six doctors can replace to the professor in such activity of reviewing articles. The most part of doctors are not reviewing articles when they can do it.

I think the PhD scholars with more than two years exprience can review better than any other reviewer in the same field. However, to take the final decission they may fail. That needs more expreinced person to see what the young researcher found and how best it can be present. In recent years publications are became the game of the branded universities. Most of the editors dont check the quality of the papers only they check the location and positions of the authors. Reviewers are the second part that an editor will choose.

Sure, we can go for that depending upon our research or topic under study but at the same time we cannot totally ignore other journals as they may also have valuable or vibrant information.

I am continuing my job and perusing PhD, and reviewed 2-3 articles too. I think its a good honour.

Yes.

Yes!

I dont agree that they will not select a PhD candidate. I agree that they will not select a PhD candidate or any lecturer who has never published a paper. 

I think that what a PhD student must do is his doctoral thesis. And after being PhD he could review other works of his speciality because to review without title of doctor is similar to review articles of other sciences in which one has not got preparation or formation or education.

The criterium to select a referee is to have proved competence in the area of research, that is to say to be doctor in such matter. An additional selection can be done with correct specialists among doctors in the matter.

I am agree that a PhD candidate or any lecturer who has published research papers can be one member of committee. A selection can be done with specific field/expert of topic.

Dear sir,

in my opinion is i do agree. a review an article to publish a reputed journals when the researcher before  join the research publish one articles. his/her capability skills and research skills are improved. when choosing a research topic, that relevant paper publish a reputed journals, research ability skills are growing day by day.

Good Luck

A university professor needs to be graduated or doctor. Similarly a reviewer needs to have proved his competence in research with several articles at the level of the journal for which he likes to review.

Is it good for a Ph.D. student to review research articles from reputed journals?

I think it is fine & honor for a PhD student to review research articles from reputed journals.  Reason being the PhD student might have achieved certain competency, experience, reputation or frequently published in reputed journals etc. before the reputed journal editor tries to approach him / her.

Moreover, reviewing other articles might also improve your skill in PhD thesis / article writing & publication.  E.g. when you are writing your thesis / article, you can put yourself into the shoe of an examiner / reviewer on what & how to write & how to avoid the common mistakes since you'd experience working as a reviewer.

Last but not least, your reviewing effort also indirectly contributing to the entire knowledge contribution process.

Why not? If you have the desired expertise, you are qualified to review. You can decline to review if you don't have knowledge about the article..

Reviewing research articles from reputed journals is always recommended. The main reason is the high quality of their articles and the accuracy of the presented results in these papers.

Of course yes, it is strongly recommended.

Yes, if the background and hypothesis is prepared on the basis of good quality of papers then the anticipated outcome is likely to be more close to the claim made in abstract.

I think what a PhD student could do is to treat of publishing his own work with the agree of the director of his research, more that to treate of judge the work of consolidated others already. He could do this after obtaining the PhD degree.

Of course it is a good thing to review articles from all journals. The only criteria is to have a good knowledge about the article theme. Besides reviewing articles, particularly from reputed journals, also increase one's own paper writing skills.

I just addressed a new question about this subject, based on a OpenUP survey about the current perceptions of potential referees in peer-review system. 

If you want to have a look, here the link:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_do_you_think_about_the_current_peer-review_system