Ofelia - different journals have different recognistion schedules. The main one appears to be Publons at the moment. Until recently, reviewing has been seen to be a 'prestige' position, anonymous - and not about 'exposing' the reviewer. I have probably reviewed many hundreds of manuscripts over the last 20 years. Most of them - I will not be publically recognised for - but I am fine with that.

Ofelia - different journals have different recognistion schedules. The main one appears to be Publons at the moment. Until recently, reviewing has been seen to be a 'prestige' position, anonymous - and not about 'exposing' the reviewer. I have probably reviewed many hundreds of manuscripts over the last 20 years. Most of them - I will not be publically recognised for - but I am fine with that.

Hi Ofelia Andrea Valdés Rodríguez

You have asked an important question. Peer review is an important academic activity that in the past was done without any recognition and reward. It essentially meant that experts and researchers spent countless hours in doing an academic activity that did not matter or counted

However, the world is changing and has realized (to some extent) the value of performing peer review. It is important that this activity gets some formal recognition

I would recommend that you register for free on either Publons https://publons.com/about/home/

or Reviewer Credit https://www.reviewercredits.com/homepage/

and make a free account. This will allow you to have a formal public record of the peer review you have done. In case your peer reviews are of high quality it will be graded. This will also increase your chances of getting an invitation from other journals for review

Hope it helps

Ofelia Andrea Valdés Rodríguez , there is a need for better recognition, indeed.

Hi Dean,

Thanks a lot for your comment, I am not against anonymous review, I do not expect recognition from the authors I have reviewed, my interest comes in recognition from the Journal that request us to perform this activity. These Journals earn a lot of money and do not expend anything on reviewers who are experts in the subjects they are publishing. I am registered in Publons and I performed two reviews in the mentioned above journals and they did not credit it because they were not recognized there.

This is my reason to start this discussion. There should be at least a recognition as reviewer of the journal, if there is not other reward.

Thank you Ofelia Andrea Valdés Rodríguez for your question. Peer-review is central in our current academic life. It is the way we use in determining article's publication, in selecting grant applications for funding, in promotion of academics, in approval of book manuscripts submitted to publishers, and in assessing PhD thesis etc.

For the peer-review of journals, we do it as part of our professional services. Some journals acknowledge peer-reviewers via certificates from the publisher or give CME hours (top-ranking journals from the USA). Other includes the names of peer-reviewers on the published paper. Publishers such as JMIR, and MDIP offer coupons that reviewers can use when submitting their manuscripts (discount from processing fees up to 300 dollars). Some top journals give free membership of their journals to peer-reviewers; if they have been doing the job for some years. I hope this helps.

Ofelia,

Having answered you earlier; let me share something I heard from my supervisor about 30 plus years ago; "we do peer-review because others did this for us and helped us to get published; we are trying to return their good work and be like them". I still remember this, and I do a loot of peer-review to keep the profession at the best standards; I am one among thousands of keen academics who love the profession, and I am sure that you have the same desires and willingness to help.

Ofelia, I am sure that Publons, which is part of Clarivate, Thomson Reuters, will be required as part of the academic promotion within the next 2-3 years by universities. Simply because, conducting peer-review, and editorial works are part of scholarly work which we emphasis on for promotion, and it is part of some of the fellowship requirements. This is another aspect to add value to peer-review work.

Dear Ofelia Andrea Valdés Rodríguez ,

In addition to what is already indicated by Samy Azer , some journal ‘award’ certificates to their peer reviewers by certain journals (see for example https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers-update/story/peer-review/certificate-of-peer-reviewing-excellence ) more often journal dedicate a page or editorial to thank all their reviewers (see for example https://jcs.biologists.org/content/132/6/jcs231480 ) most of the time in the beginning of the following year.

One reason for the problems with Publons might be that there are some red flags when it comes to three of the journals you mentioned:

-Plant Cell Biotechnology and Molecular Biology is a Scopus indexed journal however this year they published 10 times more than usual (https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/71491#tabs=2 ) this is suspect and indeed the publisher (IKP) behind this journal is mentioned in the Beall’s list as potentially predatory (I think they will under (re-)evaluation pretty soon by Scopus)

-Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology seems to be present on Publons (https://publons.com/journal/57739/current-journal-of-applied-science-and-technology/ ) and the page seems to suggest that reviewers of their journal are included. However, it uses a contact (https://www.journalcjast.com/index.php/CJAST/about/contact ) known from SCIENCEDOMAIN International (SDI) and International Knowledge Press, both mentioned in the Beall’s list.

-Journal of Pharmaceutical Research is published by the publisher OPAST GROUP LLC which is mentioned in the Beall’s list as well.

The only journal that responded correctly: The journal “Entomotropica” (http://www.entomotropica.org/ ) is indeed as far as I can judge a legit and genuine journal that suffer some (technical) issues right now but is backed-up by a serious organization.

As said by Dean Whitehead in the end peer review is a recognition for being an expert in a particular field and something as said so nicely by the supervisor of Samy Azer "we do peer-review because others did this for us and helped us to get published; we are trying to return their good work and be like them".

Best regards.

Thank you Samy and Rob, for your answers.

I really appreciate your work Rob to investigate the journals I mentioned. I am new in the review tasks, because before I mostly rejected invitations to review for time issues and now, thanks to these experiences I am learning to whom answer and to whom not, but I learned in the difficult way.

It is amazing how in every field humans are involved, there are predators, even in science and unpaid tasks like reviewing a paper.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and making this a really valuable network for people like us.

Good responses here. I agree, on one hand, that it is a 'free' service that the publishers receive - and almost 'take it for granted' that is the the way that it will remain - but it is also about academic community and perhaps a matter of moral duty. The moral duty of the publishers should be offering recognition. Some journals that I review for produce an 'end of year' list acknowledging all reviewers.

Also Ofelia Andrea Valdés Rodríguez Practising peer-review will help you improve your research experience, critical thinking, and supervising research students. Without doing peer-review, you will not grow in your research capacity and critical thinking skills.

Thanks Samy Azer , I am doing peer-review, but now I choose to whom reply and to whom not.

Thank you Ofelia Andrea Valdés Rodríguez . When I started doing peer-review, I was willing to do most of the invitations. Now I review for over 70 different journals in several specialities that I belong to - Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Medical Education and Medical Informatics, Public Health and Epidemiology, Gastrointestinal oncology and machine learning.