For Referees

Peer Review Terminology

Communications Medicine and Springer Nature are participating in a pilot of NISO/STM's Working Group on Peer Review Terminology.

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and STM, the International Association of Scientific, Technology and Medical Publishers have recognized a need to identify and standardize definitions and terminology in peer review practices in order to help align nomenclature as more publishers use open peer review models.

A peer review terminology that is used across publishers will help make the peer review process for articles and journals more transparent, and will enable the community to better assess and compare peer review practices between different journals.

The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal:

  • Reviewer interacts with: ​

           Editor

  • Identity transparency:

           Single anonymized or Double anonymized by author choice

  • Reviewer information published:

           Review reports author opt in

           Reviewer identities reviewer opt in

The full terminology is detailed here.

We would welcome feedback on the Peer Review Terminology Pilot. Please can you take the time to complete this short survey.

Guide to referees

This section contains guidelines on refereeing for Communications Medicine.

Resources for referees

This section lists other resources from Nature Portfolio that may help you in preparing your review.

Interested in reviewing for Communications Medicine?

If you would like to be considered as a reviewer for Communications Medicine, please complete this Google Form. If you are unable to access the form, please send your details to commsmed@nature.com: 

  • Your research interests and types of papers you would like to review
  • Your CV and/or link to your research website
  • A brief statement about why you would like to be considered as a reviewer

We strive to ensure that the diversity of our reviewers reflects that of the broad scientific community, in terms of gender, ethnicity, geographic location and career stage.

Please note that we will keep your information only for the purposes of contacting you as a potential reviewer for manuscripts submitted to Communications Medicine. By requesting to be considered as a reviewer, you are not committing to review any manuscript. If you would like us to delete your information at any time, please contact us.