Trainee Reviewer Program

Reviewers may recommend an advanced doctoral student, postdoc, or newer assistant professor (within five years of receiving their PhD) to participate in our trainee reviewer program.

After accepting an invitation to review a new manuscript (a new trainee cannot be invited to review a revision), the reviewer should email the editorial office and provide the following information:

  • The manuscript number
  • The trainee’s name
  • The trainee’s email address
  • The trainee’s university

Trainee reviews are shared with the authors and other reviewers. However, trainee reviews are not considered when AEs and editors assess a manuscript, and the AE and editor do not comment on trainee reviews other than to thank trainees for participating in the program. If a revision is offered on the manuscript, the trainee will be asked to review the revision, but authors should not respond or refer to trainee reviews in their revision notes.

The program is intended to help trainee reviewers learn about the full peer review process. Trainees not only discuss their reviews with their mentors, but they also see the other reviews, the AE report, and the editor’s decision letter. Trainees learn how to write good reviews and how to write better manuscripts.

Any JCR reviewer can serve as a mentor for the trainee reviewer program (however, editors and associate editors cannot mentor trainee reviewers).

If you would like to participate as a trainee but do not have a professor at your university who reviews for JCR and can serve as a mentor, contact a member of our Editorial Review Board or an ad hoc reviewer whose work is similar to yours to ask if they will serve as your mentor when they do a JCR review.

Before preparing a trainee review, see our instructions for reviewers.

Note: Trainee reviewers must be invited before the mentor submits their review and the trainee must submit their own review. Trainee reviews cannot be appended to the mentor’s review and staff cannot add trainee reviews to the system after the mentor has submitted their review.

If you have any questions, contact the editorial office.