Jessica Tollkuhnquestion for PIs: how many manuscripts do you review in a month? related: what fraction of your requests do you accept?
David Schoppik@tollkuhn 1 at most, I accept most. It was a weird month b/c I turned down 3 that hit w/in a week b/c grant sub deadline / travel. Said "yes" to #4.
@schoppik I submitted one Friday and got a request for another one Saturday, and then 3 more on Tuesday. All different journals. And I did ad hoc study section today! I think I need to say no to everything for awhile?
Spencer LaVere Smith@tollkuhn @schoppik Definitely say no when you need to. No one can do that for you. And there’s no mechanism for rewarding or compensating you when you review extra. The fact that you are even concerned about saying “no” indicates that you probably say “yes” enough already. It’s nice when you can suggest alternative qualified reviewers, especially those that the editor maybe didn’t think of, and are maybe from underrepresented groups.
@tollkuhn @schoppik It should vary by field. My rule of thumb is to review at least 1x, maybe 3x or more, of the times I send stuff out for peer review. I think there is room to improve peer review, but it's the system we have now, and I want to be a good citizen of the community. I say "yes" quickly when I get manuscripts that I know I can review quickly. Sometimes you can predict the main figures and caveats right after reading the abstract. If it's that much up-my-alley, then I say "yes" quickly because I know I can probably review it faster than most other people and this way I'm doing my part quickly and maybe overall saving the community time.