General instructions

In the end, we are all well served by improving the quality of manuscripts published in the scientific literature. Your efforts in reviewing a manuscript carefully and in depth will greatly enhance our journal. Your review plays a major role in our decision to accept or reject papers for publication in Paleobiology and we are very grateful for the time and effort you invest in the review process.

Mechanics

Please return reviews electronically to Paleo-Journal@si.edu. Carefully file your review, as you may be asked to re-review future revisions of the manuscript. Reviewer forms are available for download as either PDF or DOC files. If returning your review electronically is not an option, you may choose to FAX your review to the Editorial Assistant.

Please submit your review in two parts:

1. Paleobiology Review Sheet - Comments for transmittal to author(s).

2. Confidential Section For the Editors Only. Please check the appropriate box on the review form for whether or not you wish to be identified to the author as a reviewer.

Please label all attachments first with the 5-digit manuscript number (with no hyphens), then your reviewer number, followed by a file descriptor, for example:

02051 Rev1 rev sheet.doc
02051 Rev1 eds only.rtf
02051 Rev1 marked ms.pdf

If comments inserted directly into the manuscript are necessary, it should also be emailed and the file should be named as indicated above. Comments written directly on a hard copy of the ms can be scanned, then e-mailed to us, FAX-ed to the editorial assistant, or mailed to us. Please add a message to the e-mail or faxed review telling us that additional comments on the manuscript are coming in the mail. If you have not made any comments on the manuscript, it is not necessary to mail back-up copies of your review.

NOTE: If you are using the electronic PDF versions of the review forms, please keep in mind you will NOT be able to save your information if you do not have Adobe Acrobat. If you only have Acrobat Reader, you will be able to enter and print your review, but you will not be able to save or email it. Word versions of the forms are available for download.

Confidentiality

We make every effort to keep confidential the identity of reviewers who wish to remain anonymous, but we encourage open reviewing wherever possible. Please check the appropriate box on the review form. Any comments in the section marked "Confidential for the Editors" will in no circumstances be provided to the author. Please remember that this is a privileged document. It should not be shown to nor discussed with other people (except to solicit assistance with a technical point) without the consent of the editors or author.

Deadline

We find the biggest logjam for manuscripts submitted to Paleobiology to be the amount of time manuscripts languish with reviewers. The review will be most useful if it is returned within two or three weeks. Our final deadline for the review is SIX weeks.

In fairness to the author(s), you should return your review within the agreed-upon time. If you doubt that you can evaluate the manuscript within that time (usually three weeks from the time it arrives in your mailbox or e-mail box), please immediately notify the Editorial Assistant by e-mail, including the manuscript number on the subject line.