This interactive guide will take you through key points to consider before and during each step of the peer review process.

Have you received an invitation to review a manuscript, but you’re not sure whether to accept it? Do you want to be reminded of all the important points to consider when evaluating a manuscript?

As an ACS Reviewer Lab course graduate, you can now access a specially designed toolkit to guide you through the peer-review process in real time.

The toolkit’s decision trees and checklists will take you step-by-step through the key factors to consider before accepting a review (such as conflicts of interest). It also covers how to prepare before you begin, how to assess the manuscript’s technical quality, presentation, and readiness for publication, and how to craft the final written review.

What’s more, you can use this toolkit any time you need it with the click of a button.

What’s Covered in the Toolkit

  • What to consider before accepting a review
  • Ethics/conflicts of interest
  • Preparing for review
  • Assessing significance and technical quality
  • Assessing presentation and readiness for publication
  • Writing your review

Accessing the Toolkit

To access the toolkit, you will need to create a free account on ACS Reviewer Lab and complete the course, which typically takes between two and four hours total. The course will help educate you on the fundamentals of scholarly peer review and has been developed by ACS Editors, leading chemistry researchers, and ACS Publications staff.

Once you have completed the course and passed the assessment, you will unlock graduate benefits, including:

  • Interactive graduate toolkit
  • Certificate of completion to share with your network
  • ACS Reviewer Lab Graduate badge in ACS Paragon Plus, visible to ACS journal editors

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