5 ways to secure your first peer review invitation as an industry researcher
Perspective of a research engineer, reviewing for forums like *ACL
Despite its limitations, peer review is widely regarded as the most popular and reliable method for quality control of scientific publications. But should you even bother about participating in unpaid peer reviews if you are working in a corporate R&D? To know why, as an industry researcher, you should volunteer for peer reviews, check out my previous article.
For now, let’s assume that we are in agreement about the importance of peer review to an industry researcher. This brings us to the next question that bugs many young research enthusiasts:
How do you get invited by a reputed external conference or journal for review duty?
Once you have reviewed for a few conferences and journals, the chances of getting invited by others increases. But how exactly does a young engineer in corporate R&D with only a few years of research experience get noticed enough to bag the first invitation? Here are five approaches that are effective in my domain, but easily translate to others.
1. Publish more papers
Well, frankly, this is a no-brainer. No reputed conference or journal will consider someone to evaluate a paper if they never published their own work! Usually, the journal editorial committee or conference chairs reach out to potential reviewers who are actively publishing in the domain. This is the primary way to put your name out. So, there is no skipping this.
2. Attend conferences… and engage
While publishing in journals with high impact factors is essential to advance your career, there is a much better opportunity to network with academics and professionals in your domain at conference venues. Visiting conferences on company funds to present your work comes with the benefit of traveling to international locations. It is, without doubt, wise to make use of the time experiencing the culture of the venue… Yet one more thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has put on hold. However, it is also wiser to actively participate in conference discussions, workshops, poster presentations to get an idea of what others are working on across the world. Whenever you get the opportunity to connect with fellow researchers, make the most of it. Who knows? Perhaps, your work impresses someone who then goes on to recommend your name to an editorial committee.
3. “Volunteer” for external peer review
Most conferences take the help of conference management portals like Softconf/START, EasyChair, many of which allow you to mention if you would like to be considered for a reviewer role in the future when you log in to submit your paper for review. You may also try reaching out to editors of journals in your domain, but chances are that your mail will be summarily replied with something like “We will keep you in mind”. Spoiler alert: They won’t. Editors are busy professionals themselves and managing journals is not the only work that they are engaged in. So, when they do need a review for a manuscript they receive, they are more likely to share it with those whom they already feel are adept in the domain.
Instead, this is something you can try: Once you have a few publications, reach out seeking to volunteer and enumerate why should be considered as a worthy reviewer in your area of research. Something slightly unintuitive: the more specific you make your research interest area, the likelier you are to receive an invitation when there is a close match of your skills with the abstract of a manuscript.
4. Participate in internal reviews at your R&D lab and company
While pursuing an academic degree, your advisor may involve you as a secondary reviewer or even recommend your name to editors. This is rare in the industry. The effective approach here is to actively seek out opportunities. If there is an open culture at your office, offer to help in reviewing the manuscripts of your colleagues. Highlight that you can bring in the perspective of an outsider, not being directly involved in what your colleagues from a different team are working on. Be sure to make it clear that you are not seeking out authorship in their work. Otherwise, there are chances that your colleagues may shy away from asking for help if they worry about having to increase an already long list of authors.
Furthermore, if you have a defined portal or an in-house conference, seek out opportunities to help with internal reviews. I owe much of my early review experience in the industry to the leads and colleagues in my team for involving me in manuscript review before they are submitted to external platforms. Apart from summarising the strengths and weaknesses in these drafts, feel free to suggest alternative approaches or additional experiments. These can help drive the motivation of the paper or close any gap in the soundness of the authors’ contribution. I have shared a bonus tip at the end on how to do this today in less than a minute!
5. Finally, it is all about the Quality of Reviews
Okay, this becomes more relevant once you get your first documented reviewer duty. The quality of your reviews will go a long way in determining whether editorial committees and program chairs consider retaining you in their reviewer polls for future submissions. Substandard reviews are discouraging to the authors and do injustice to the reputation of the entire review system. Top-tier conferences and journals are unlikely to encourage behaviors where they have to seek out further emergency reviews at the end of original review deadlines. Peer reviewing is a privilege, and it is prudent to keep that in mind.
Heads-up: The first reviewer invitation may come with an associated “imposter syndrome”. Trust me, this is quite common. Treat this as just another step in the progress of your research career, as you continue to learn the skills of reviewing.
Meanwhile, here’s a bonus tip: you can start by sharing this article with your friends and colleagues, letting them subtly know that you are serious about peer reviewing and that you may be available to help review their next manuscript 😉.
How was your early experience with peer reviews? Let me know in the comments.
