Peer review is the foundation of quality in research for both books and journals, ensuring that published research is rigorous and ethical. Peer reviewers can access a number of resources to assist them with their peer reviewing duties:
- How to peer review journal articles: a practical introduction to conducting peer reviews, especially for those who are new to the process
- Ethics in peer review
- Online peer review systems, and how to anonymously annotate manuscripts
- Peer review FAQs
The journal administrator is also happy to help with any queries regarding undertaking peer review assignments. Please contact the Editorial Office with any questions.
Transparent peer review
Biotechnology Design operates transparent peer review for full transparency about decision-making, to mitigate issues that contribute to editorial bias, and to enable reviewers to collect their contributions as part of their academic record. We understand that there are valid reasons why a reviewer may not want to sign their report so we provide that option. Accepted manuscripts are published with their review reports, which are assigned an individual DOI; these reports may include the reviewer name and their ORCID ID.
Transparent peer review does not mean that reviewers should contact authors directly, or that authors should contact reviewers. All queries should be directed through biotechnologydesign@cambridge.org.
Guidance for peer reviewers
If we need your help with reviewing a manuscript, we will email you and ask you to accept or decline the invitation through our submission site.
The editorial team will make the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript, based on the reviewers’ comments and their own editorial judgement.