Inviting Reviewers

You invite reviewers from the Reviewers tab of the submission. You can invite only while the status of the submission is Under review.

1. On the Editorial → Editor queue screen, open the submission and go to the Reviewers tab.
2. Press Invite reviewer.
3. Choose the reviewer in one of two ways:
   • On the From the reviewer pool tab, search by name, e-mail, institution or expertise. The candidates are ranked by the keywords of the submission. You can change the ranking with the Matching keywords field. Each candidate shows their number of ongoing, completed and declined invitations. A candidate whose expertise matches the submission carries the Matched label. Select the row of a suitable candidate.
   • On the By e-mail tab, fill in the E-mail address, Full name and Invitation language fields. If an account with this address exists, the invitation goes to that account. For a person without an account, a reviewer account is created and a link for setting a password is sent. In this case the full name is required.
4. Optionally, add a Personal message. If you leave Days to respond and Days to review empty, the periods from the site settings apply. By default these are 7 and 21 days.
5. Press Send invitation.

The response period can be between 1 and 60 days, the review period between 1 and 180 days. The review deadline cannot be earlier than the response deadline. If you enter a review period shorter than the response period, both deadlines fall on the same day.

After the invitation

The invitation e-mail contains only the submission number and the journal name. The reviewer also gets a notification in the panel. Reminders go out automatically, and an invitation that is not answered in time closes. The periods are described in Reviewer Deadlines and Reminders.

You follow the status of the invitation, its deadlines and the incoming review on the same tab. Changing deadlines, cancelling an invitation and inviting the same person again are described in Tracking Invitations and Reviews.

Rules the system applies

• The authors of the submission and the people already invited in this round do not appear in the candidate list.
• The pool includes only active accounts with a verified e-mail address that have the reviewer role or joined the reviewer pool from their profile.
• You cannot invite yourself as a reviewer.
• If a person already has an open invitation in the same round, a second invitation is not sent to them.
• The Reviewer rules note at the top of the tab checks the number of reviewers and their institutions. These warnings do not block the action.