The Community review guidelines

Community reviews are those written about articles that you have read and wish to share your thoughts on. These are often known as post-publication reviews. These are reviews you have undertaken yourself and not those commissioned by a journal or conference. Such reviews do not require verification.

Writing Community reviews is a good way to demonstrate your expertise to editors, other reviewers, and authors. It is also a great way to log the literature you have read, to join and further the conversation about new research and is a great way for early career researchers to practice manuscript analysis.

On Web of Science, we want to build a community that is:

  • Constructive -- your contributions push the sphere of human knowledge forward;

  • Positive -- your contributions are focused on improving research, not tearing it down: and

  • Reliable - your contributions to the site are yours and provided in good faith.

With that in mind, we have developed the following principles:

  1. Community reviews and comments are to be based around the research or reviews in question. Reviews and comments gratuitously aimed at individuals or groups are not acceptable.

  2. Community reviews should be written by you. Plagiarism, whereby you present someone else's work or ideas as your own without full acknowledgment, is unacceptable.

  3. Do not copy and past large section of content from other places unless it is your own work (from you blog, for example) . In these cases, add a link to the original content.

  4. Comments solely stating that a paper is of good or poor quality is not a Community review. Community reviews and comments should aim to provide insight, context, and constructive feedback in the hope of progressing research and understanding in the field.

  5. Scrutiny and criticisms should be focused on the research, evidence-based (with citations), constructive and include recommendations for improving the work / future research.

  6. When signing Community reviews and comments ensure you have a completed profile (accurate name, profile picture, affiliations, linked ORCID ID, accurate publication history) so readers can see your credentials and place your reviews or comments in context.

  7. Avoid overly emotional language (positive or negative) where possible.

  8. Where practicable, we will contact parties that are in breach of the guidelines and provide an opportunity for content to be amended. Where content is beyond reproach, it may be removed without warning. We will always notify the author of content that has been removed.

  9. Web of Science Community Managers periodically check the content of reviews and comments for material breaches of the guidelines.

  10. We invite users to report instances where they believe these guidelines have been breached by submitting a support ticket through our ticket submission form, linking to the relevant review or comment, and outlining how the content is in breach of the guidelines.

  11. Please do not include a link to any blog or website that is outside the scope of your review or the study itself. This includes any site connected to a campaign or movement with a political or social agenda.

  12. Please do not include advertising for commercial products or services of all kinds.

  13. Disclose conflicts of interest

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