Reviewer Guidelines

Peer review is essential to the quality and integrity of the Journal of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering (JWREE). The journal applies double-blind peer review: the identities of authors and reviewers are not disclosed to each other. We sincerely thank all reviewers for contributing their time and expertise.

1. Before Accepting an Invitation

Reviewers are invited by email. Before accepting, please consider whether:

– the manuscript falls within your area of expertise;

– you can complete the review by the deadline stated in the invitation;

– you have any conflict of interest, for example: recent collaboration with the authors, working at the same institution, a personal or financial relationship, or competing research on the same topic.

If any of these apply, please decline the invitation as soon as possible. Suggestions of alternative reviewers are always welcome.

2. Confidentiality

The manuscript and all related materials are confidential. Reviewers must not share, discuss or use any part of the manuscript for their own purposes, and must not contact the authors directly. Reviewers should not attempt to identify the authors and must not include information in their reports that could reveal their own identity.

3. Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools

To protect confidentiality, reviewers must not upload the manuscript, or any part of it, or their review report to generative artificial intelligence tools. The scientific evaluation must be the reviewer’s own work.

4. Evaluation Criteria

Reviewers are asked to assess the manuscript against the following criteria:

– Relevance: whether the topic falls within the journal’s aims and scope.

– Originality and significance: whether the work makes a new and meaningful contribution to the field.

– Methodology: whether the methods are appropriate, clearly described and sufficient to allow the work to be reproduced.

– Results and discussion: whether the results are reliable and properly interpreted, and are discussed in relation to existing studies.

– Conclusions: whether the conclusions are supported by the results.

– References: whether the references are relevant, up to date and correctly cited.

– Presentation: whether the title, abstract, figures and tables are clear and informative, and whether the English is of acceptable quality.

5. Writing the Review Report

A helpful review report usually includes a brief summary of the manuscript and its main contribution; the major comments that affect the validity or significance of the work; and minor comments on presentation, figures, tables and language. Comments should be specific, constructive and respectful, so that the authors can improve their work. Reviewers should not request citations to their own work unless they are clearly relevant. Comments intended only for the editor can be entered in the confidential comments field.

6. Recommendation

At the end of the review, reviewers select one of the following recommendations: Accept Submission; Revisions Required; Resubmit for Review; Decline Submission; or See Comments. The final decision is made by the Editor-in-Chief, taking into account all reviewers’ reports.

7. Submitting the Review in the System

Click the link in the invitation email (or log in and open the assigned review on your dashboard), then follow the four steps:

– Step 1 – Request: read the abstract and accept or decline the invitation.

– Step 2 – Guidelines: read the reviewer guidelines.

– Step 3 – Download and Review: download the manuscript, enter your comments for the authors and for the editor, upload any annotated files if needed, and select your recommendation.

– Step 4 – Completion: confirm and submit your review.

If you are unable to meet the deadline, please inform the editor as early as possible.

8. Acknowledgement of Reviewers

JWREE greatly values the contribution of its reviewers. Upon completion of the review, each reviewer receives a letter of appreciation and a reviewer certificate from the journal.