Trail Stop 13: Reviewing as a Lifelong Habit

Becoming an Excellent Peer Reviewer: A Writer’s Camp Learning Trail

Sarah A. Martin, DNP, MS, CPNP-AC/PC

Writer’s Camp Counselor

---

Make peer reviewing a rewarding professional habit.

---

You are one Trail Stop away from becoming an excellent peer reviewer. I trust this hike has encouraged you to become a reviewer, continue to peer review, or re-engage as a peer reviewer if you have broken the habit. My writing, reviewing, and editing have spanned more than four decades. Authoring led to reviewing, reviewing led to editorial board involvement, which led to journal leadership positions. But a constant for me has been serving as a peer reviewer for several journals. Peer review is a habit for me, an automatic behavior I do without conscious thought. I look forward to receiving invitations to review and rarely decline.

Three essential elements of a habit are the cue that triggers the behavior, the routine or action you will complete, and the reward or joy you experience that supports repeating the behavior.¹ Becoming a peer reviewer is an ongoing process. Reviewing improves you! Reviewing makes your writing, critical thinking, knowledge, research and editorial judgment better. Accepting reviews regularly, completing them promptly, and staying engaged with journals of high interest will allow you to flourish and establish peer review as a professional habit. Paper submissions are at an all-time high and reviewer scarcity is contributing to a reviewer crisis;² your timing could not be better to develop a reviewer habit.

Nurse Reviewer Demographics and Professional Attributes      

Peer reviewers come from many areas of nursing and at different stages of their careers. The peer review process depends on both seasoned and novice reviewers. Nurses from different practice areas, with varied expertise and experience, are needed.

In a 2008 international survey, nurse reviewers averaged 52 years of age; 68% held doctoral degrees, and most were academics involved in research.³ Although that study is now nearly two decades old, its findings remind us of the importance of developing the next generation of reviewers. As a nurse who had a long practice history before entering academia, I encourage younger colleagues in a wide variety of settings to become peer reviewers.

Reviewers bring varied professional strengths; some may be more comfortable focusing on clinical content, research methods, or conceptual appraisal. Remember, not every reviewer needs to review every aspect of a paper. As a doctoral student, I regularly reviewed both clinical and research papers. Statistics remain a weakness for me, so papers requiring critical review of that dimension warrant a collaborative review. Being transparent with the editor about aspects of a manuscript you did not review allows the editor to seek additional consultation as needed. Your expertise will benefit authors and support rigor in nursing publications.

Cues

Cues you should be reviewing include:

• Being engaged with the summer of peer review at Writer’s Camp and arriving at this Trail Stop!  
• Expressing interest in peer reviewing for a specific journal;
• Connecting with an editor;
• Motivation to build your scholarship; and
• Being interested in “sneak peeks” at emerging work in your areas of interest.

Active recruitment by nurse editors was the most common reason survey respondents became involved in peer review.³ However, you do not need to wait for an invitation. Calls for reviewers are often posted on journal websites and in resources such as Writer’s Camp Peer Reviewers Needed. Reach out to a journal you read regularly and volunteer. It is much easier to review articles for a journal you are familiar with and being a reader is a strength the editor will appreciate.

Personal and professional demands will sometimes limit your availability. If necessary, decline a review rather than accepting an assignment you cannot complete. When you are ready to review again, contact the editor and let them know you are available. Keep your contact information and reviewer profile current in journal submission systems so editors can find you and send invitations. Acting on these cues will help establish your reviewing routine.

Your Routine

Along these trail stops, you have gained the knowledge you need to become a peer reviewer.⁴ As you gain experience, you will develop your own reviewing style and routines that help you become more effective and efficient. In the 2008 survey of nurse reviewers described earlier, respondents completed an average of 7 to 8 reviews per year.³ Lack of time was the most frequently cited barrier to accepting review invitations.³ Reviews may take several hours to complete, depending on the manuscript and the reviewer’s experience.^3,5  One study found no increase in review quality when reviewers spent more than 3 hours on a review.⁶ In my own experience, however, reviewing a full-length manuscript often takes several hours. Establish your reviewing routine with small, achievable goals that fit your available time and other professional responsibilities.

One thing you should decide for yourself: when you receive a review invitation, should you complete the review immediately or accept it and schedule time to complete it before the deadline? I have colleagues who use a “do it now” approach. When an invitation arrives, they look at the topic and abstract. Is the manuscript of interest and within their expertise? If so, and they have an hour or two available, they accept the invitation and complete the review right then. Done!

If they do not have time, they flag the invitation in their email and return to it within a day or two. An automated reminder provides another cue to make a decision. If, after two or three prompts (automated and/or personal), they still cannot identify a reasonable block of time for the review, they decline so the editor can invite someone else. Note that in this approach, only a few days have passed from the original invitation, so the journal office still receives the review in a timely fashion.

Other reviewers take a more traditional approach: they accept the review, note the due date, and add it to their calendar. This approach works, too—but only if you have a reliable system for remembering and meeting the deadline. Too often, reviewers accept an invitation with every intention of completing it, only to have the deadline slip by. For an editorial office, waiting two or three weeks for a promised review that never materializes can significantly delay the review process.

Find a routine that works for you—and then make it a habit.

Reward

Why should you review? Reviewing regularly exposes you to novel topics, emerging trends, and new knowledge. In the survey of nurse reviewers, gaining knowledge from reviewing was identified as the strongest motivator for conducting peer review.³ Each of us will have personal motivations, but reviewing also allows you to advance the profession, give back to the scholarly community, and support authors, editors, and nursing journals. It is rewarding to help an author improve a manuscript and ultimately become published. There is joy in seeing a paper you reviewed appear in print. Developing the habit of peer review can bring both excellence and enjoyment to your scholarly life and become part of who you are professionally.

Peer review usually counts as service in academic circles and you can include it in your professional dossier for tenure and promotion. Many journals offer contact hours for peer review; this is a nice benefit especially if you are required to have a continuing education credit for licensure or certification.

Conclusion

Becoming an excellent peer reviewer does not happen with your first review—or your tenth. It develops over time, as you respond to the cues that invite you into peer review, establish a routine that fits your professional life, and discover the rewards that keep you engaged.

Your reviewing practice will change as your career changes. There may be times when you review frequently and times when other responsibilities require you to step away. You may develop new areas of expertise, become more selective about the manuscripts you accept, or find yourself mentoring novice reviewers. What matters is staying connected to the scholarly community and returning to the habit when you can.

Peer review has been a constant throughout my professional life. It has made me a better writer, scholar, editor, and colleague. My hope is that somewhere along this Writer’s Camp trail, you have discovered reasons to make reviewing part of your professional life, too.

There is one Trail Stop left. Keep hiking.

References

1. Duhigg C. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Random House; 2012.
2. Adam D. The peer-review crisis: how to fix an overloaded system. Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science. 2025;644(8075):24-27. doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02457-2
3. Kearney MH, Baggs JG, Broome ME, Dougherty MC, Freda MC. Experience, time investment, and motivators of nursing journal peer reviewers. Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 2008;40(4):395-400. doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.2008.00255.x
4. Raber A. Trail stop 2: Becoming a peer reviewer and accepting (or declining) the invitation. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2026; 2(2):14. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.20137489
5. Chicca J. Trail stop 5: Writing constructive feedback. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2(3):5. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.20966803
6. Black N, van Rooyen S, Godlee F, Smith R, Evans S. What makes a good reviewer and a good review for a general medical journal?. JAMA. 1998;280(3):231-233. doi:10.1001/jama.280.3.231

Author: Sarah A. Martin

Reviewed and Edited by: Leslie H. Nicoll

Copyright © 2026 by Writer’s Camp and Sarah A. Martin. CC-BY-ND 4.0

Citation: Martin SA. Trail Stop 13: Reviewing as a lifelong habit. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2(3):11.doi:10.5281/zenodo.21981860