Configuring the Peer Review Process
This article explains the peer review settings you can configure for a journal, such as the review type, the number of reviewers, and reviewer timings.
Each journal has its own peer review settings, so you can run different journals differently. These settings are found in the journal's settings, alongside the other options you set when you add or edit a journal.
Important: Only a Super User can change a journal's settings. For how to reach and edit journal settings, see Add Journals.
Opening the peer review settings
Open the 'Journals' tab in the 'Super User' menu, find the journal, and click the pencil icon to edit its settings.
Scroll down to the peer review options.
Peer review type: single or double blind
Choose how much each side can see during review:
- Single-blind: reviewers can see the authors' identities, but authors cannot see who reviewed their manuscript.
- Double-blind: both sides are hidden, so reviewers do not see the authors' identities and authors do not see the reviewers'.
📝 Note: If you run double-blind review, consider also allowing anonymous submission (below), so authors can submit without revealing their identity in the manuscript.
Author-suggested reviewers
You can allow authors to suggest reviewers during submission, and to exclude reviewers they feel have a conflict of interest. By checking the 'Allow suggested reviewers' option, you can then input the minimum and default numbers of reviewers that authors are able to suggest.
Editors are not obliged to use these suggestions, but they appear as options. For how authors use this, see Submitting a Manuscript.
Anonymous submission
You can allow authors to submit anonymously. This is useful for double-blind journals, as it helps keep the authors' identities hidden from reviewers.
Reviewer timings
By scrolling up, you can also set review deadlines alongside author revision deadlines.
Review deadline: how long a reviewer is given to respond to an invitation or complete their review. A common default is 10 days.
Reviewer Reminders
JAMS can automatically remind reviewers as deadlines approach. For how reminders work, see Automatic Reminders.
Peer Review Form
Publishers can ad Custom Form Components to the review form sent to reviewers. To learn more, see Custom Review and Decision Forms, to tailor the form reviewers complete.