Professional service
Conditions for accepting journal review invitations, designed to preserve reciprocal scholarly service while recognising the value of expert review work.
Rationale
Academic time is scarce. Commercial academic publishers generate very large profits from a system financed by taxpayers and sustained by largely unpaid scholarly labour. Universities pay to produce research, to evaluate it, and to regain access to it, while the burden falls disproportionately on early-career researchers, who face especially strong publication pressures and limited bargaining power.
Reciprocal reviewing remains part of scholarly membership: authors benefit from the judgement of other researchers and should contribute to the same system. This policy therefore distinguishes between reciprocal service to the academic community and review work undertaken for commercial publishers. It aims to protect the time needed for research, teaching, and supervision while assigning an institutional value to expert review work.
Without a fee
Subject to availability, fit, and the time required, I review without a fee for:
Commercial publishers
For journals owned by commercial publishers, the requested fee is:
Fees are handled institutionally and directed to departmental research funds, rather than paid as personal income.
Exceptions
Rare exceptions may be made for a journal or manuscript of particular interest to my research agenda. Acceptance of any invitation remains conditional on available time and appropriate subject expertise.
For editors
Please include the manuscript title and abstract, the requested deadline, the expected review format, and the journal’s ownership or publishing arrangement.