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Supporting you in finding the best reviewer candidates
January 22, 2025 | 4 min read
By José Stoop
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Unlock the full potential of our Find Reviewers tool
Editors are essential for maintaining quality in academic publishing, but their workload has increased due to rising submission volumes. Finding and securing reviewers remains a critical challenge. At Elsevier, we prioritize supporting our editors by improving reviewer recruitment efficiency to enhance the peer review process and uphold publishing excellence.
Find Reviewers
With our Find Reviewers tool, we aim to help editors by offering different search options to identify reviewers effectively. The tool is accessible through Editorial Manager under the “Find Reviewers using Scopus” section on your Reviewer Selection Summary page. The search options include AI-driven recommendations using Scopus data, candidates that have volunteered to review for the journal on Reviewer Hub opens in new tab/window, the journals’ Editorial Advisory Board members, and authors who have recently published in the journal. All candidates are ranked with the help of a smart algorithm that examines their scientific match with the manuscript; current workload; and history with reviewing for this and other Elsevier journals; as well as their gender and other factors. And the integrated conflict of interest check filters out unsuitable candidates from the system recommendations and flags up candidates with a potential conflict of interest.
This multi-faceted approach of Find Reviewers not only makes reviewer recruitment an easier task; it also promotes diversity, expertise, and (broader) geographic representation within the peer review system.
Making the best use of the tool
To ensure you make the best use of Find Reviewers, we have collected some tips and tricks for you. Want to know more? Check out our brand-new Find Reviewers page!
Editorial Advisory Board members
Our data show that Editorial Advisory Board members (EBMs) are over twice as likely to accept a review invitation and show a higher completion rate than that of “regular” candidates– these are featured on a dedicated search tab in the Find Reviewers tool. Just as with Interested Reviewers, you can search on matching works and refine your search by manually adding research keywords in Session Preferences to optimize the match between the manuscript and the EB members.
Keyword search
Keyword search is an excellent source of reviewer candidates and can help you find candidates outside of your network who have expertise in the topics you are seeking. The Keyword search tab presents the suggested keywords and – if available – classification terms provided by the author.
While these terms usually make an excellent starting point for you to identify reviewer candidates, you are encouraged to use your own expertise and understanding of the manuscript by searching on your own carefully selected keywords. You can do so by tweaking these keywords to your preferences by selecting the “Session Preferences” link on the left-hand navigation bar, which will open a pop-up window where you can refine your keywords. Carefully selecting “ANY” or “ALL” on the main page can also greatly influence your search results.
“Interested Reviewers”
The “Interested Reviewers” search option is another excellent avenue for finding candidates. Results from the Interested Reviewers tab represent individuals who have indicated they are willing to review for your journal using our Reviewer Hub platform opens in new tab/window. Data show that these volunteering reviewers tend to be highly engaged. With the Session Preferences option, you can tweak keywords and look for the most suitable candidates for the manuscript. Of course, your final manual oversight is needed to make sure that candidates have volunteered for the correct journal and are indeed a good fit.
H-index
Candidates with a high h-index are likely to be active researchers but do consider that these people may simply be too busy for reviewing. We therefore recommend avoiding focusing solely on high h-index individuals and to consider relevant candidates with lower scores – such as early career researchers who tend to be keen to gain experience with reviewing.
Further help
You will find these and many more tips on our new Find Reviewer page. We also encourage you to read the Editors’ Update articles on “Harnessing technology to boost diversity, equity and inclusion in peer review” and “Recap and recent enhancements to Find Reviewers”.
To learn more about inviting alternate reviewers, who can be set to be automatically invited when other candidates decline, watch the “Using alternate reviewers in Editorial Manager video guide opens in new tab/window” on our Support Hub.
For more tips & tricks about the review process, read our dedicated series in Editors’ Update:
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