As an AIEM reviewer, you will receive invitations to review a manuscript via email.
As the reviewer invitation email states, please click on one of the links to either “accept” or “decline” the reviewer invitation. If the links provided in the email do not work, please log in to your Editorial Manager® account in your web browser.

To log in to your Editorial Manager® account, enter your username and password in the appropriate fields and click on “Reviewer Login”:

Once you have successfully logged in, you will see the Reviewer Main Menu. Your assignments will fall into three folders: “New Reviewer Invitations,” “Pending Assignments,” and “Completed Assignments.” The number of invitations, reviews in process, or reviews completed will display in the parentheses beside each folder name:

Note: If the email link did not work and you had to log in to Editorial Manager®, your invitation will show up under the folder called “New Reviewer Invitations.”

The manuscript will be placed in the “New Reviewer Invitations” folder when you are invited to review a paper. When you click on the folder “New Reviewer Invitations,” you will see the manuscripts listed. Then, you will click on “Agree to Review,” and you will receive a confirmation on the screen. Under the confirmation message, you will click on the “Pending Assignments” link to view the manuscript you have agreed to review.

Note: Once an invitation to review is accepted, the submission automatically moves to the “Pending Assignments” folder. Reviewers that are “Assigned” a submission, rather than “Invited” to handle it, will find the manuscript in the “Pending Assignments” folder as well.

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Within the “Pending Assignments” folder, you will click on “View Submission” to access the manuscript in PDF form. You may save the PDF to your computer or print out a hard copy for review. Please note that the manuscripts are not to be shared or distributed.

When you have read the paper and are ready to complete the review within the Editorial Manager® system, click on “Submit Recommendation.” This will bring you to the “Reviewer Recommendation and Comments” page: On this page, you will select your recommendation in the drop-down menu. The decision options include accept, minor revision, major revision, or reject. You will also provide an overall rating of the manuscript between 1 and 100. A recommendation of accept at initial review should be used rarely and only if the manuscript is exemplary and you have graded the manuscript with all 1’s and 5’s in the various categories.

Manuscripts should only be recommended for acceptance (without revision) if you are scoring all areas in the 1-5 range. If the scores are lower, there is room for improvement, and we request that you make suggestions for improvement. AIEM is continually striving to publish journal articles of the very highest quality, and good reviews help us to accomplish this. The Instructions link beside each area will bring up more details.

Note: By clicking on the “Publons Recognition” link (if available), you will be able to receive verified credit for your review if you have a Publons profile. If you do not have a Publons profile, clicking on the “Learn More” link will take you to the home page where you can set up a free Publons profile to get verified credit/recognition for your peer reviews.

Once the “Reviewer Questions” are filled out, you can move on to the text box called “Reviewer Blind Comments to Author” where you can provide your clear and concise review for the author to see. (These are called Reviewer Blind Comments because the reviewer’s identity will not be shared with the author.) Comments that you would like the author to see MUST be made in this box, including suggestions for improving the manuscript or reasons why the manuscript is not acceptable for publication. If no comments are made, the journals staff or Associate Editor will contact you to complete the process to include comments.

The exception to this step is when you upload a separate document with your comments and suggestions In the “Reviewer Confidential Comments to the Editor” text box, you can provide confidential comments to the Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief that will be seen only by the handling Editor(s) and not the author. Confidential comments to the Editor should NOT include your suggestions to the author for improvements or changes because the Editor will be able to read your comments to the author. After you provide your comments to the Author and Editor, you will move on to the “Manuscript Rating” field where you will provide rankings to several qualifications on a scale of 1-5 (please note that it is not acceptable to select “N/A”):

Next, you can select to “Save & Submit Later,” which will save all your comments and ratings for another time. You can also click on “Proceed” if you want to move forward with submitting your recommendation. You can click on “Proof & Print,” which will open a new window containing the full review and give you a view of the review that you can print out as a hard copy record. Or you can click “Upload Reviewer Attachments.” Reviewer attachments may be uploaded to the system as a part of your review. You can provide a description of your attachment.

Note: Reviewer attachments need to be blinded and professional because they will be available to the author. Please do not include your name or any contact or identifying information on uploaded documents, including the file name.

Once your attachment has been uploaded, you will click “Proceed with Recommendation.” A summary of the completed recommendation will be on your screen. Take this time to review your answers and comments. Check for accuracy and edit if necessary. If everything is correct, click on “Submit Review To Journal Office.” When your review is successfully submitted, you will see a “Review Thank You” screen like the one below. If you do not see this screen, it likely means that your review has not successfully been submitted. Please contact the journal office if you have difficulty: [email protected]

Authors have the option to submit a response to all reviews. To access the Author’s Response to Reviewers (if applicable), click on “Completed Assignments” on the Reviewer Main Menu Under your “Completed Assignments,” choose the paper for which you would like to see the Author’s Response to Reviewers. Click on “View Reviewer Comments” for that paper. The “Response to Reviewers” is the last link on the “View Reviewer Comments” page Click on the “Response to Reviewers” link, and a new window will open where you can view all comments.

On most occasions, an author will be asked to submit a revised manuscript. If you were a reviewer for the original manuscript, you may be invited to review the revision, especially if significant changes were requested from the author. In such a case, you will receive an email through Editorial Manager® from the Associate Editor handling the paper. The email will give clear instructions on how to proceed and look.

As a reviewer of the manuscript, you will get a notification email through Editorial Manager® that will state the final decision that was made on the article you reviewed.

Reviewers are given 14 days to respond initially to an invitation and then 21 days from acceptance of the invitation to complete the review. You will be uninvited as a reviewer if you do not respond to the initial invitation within 14 days. Within the 21-day timeframe, there are several reminders sent from the system to ensure that your review is completed on time. The reviewer reminder schedule is:

1. Reminder Type Number of Days
   • 1st No response: Reviewer reminder before agreeing or declining to review 4
   • 2nd No response: Reviewer reminder before agreeing or declining to review 8
   • 3rd No response: Reviewer reminder before agreeing or declining to review 12
   • 1st Reviewer reminder before review submission deadline 7
   • 2nd Reviewer reminder before review submission deadline 3
   • 1st Late Reviewer Reminder after review submission deadline 3
   • 2nd Late Reviewer Reminder after review submission deadline 6

Note: If you do not submit your review after the 2nd late reviewer reminder, the Associate Editor handling the paper can either send you an email reminder through Editorial Manager® or reassign the manuscript to another reviewer. If you need additional time to complete your review, please contact the journal office at [email protected]