We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Elsevier Reviewer Academy's free online Certified Peer Reviewer Course.

Co-created, developed and delivered by experts in the field and editors from selected journals, the course has been specifically designed to give those who have not yet reviewed – or who feel they would like additional training in this area – the skills and confidence to accept a request to review. 

The syllabus which has the full support of our advisory board* covers, among other topics:

  • The peer review and editorial process, presented by Patricia Morton the editor of the Journal of Professional Nursing
  • Best practices by Catriona Fennell
  • Ingredients of a helpful review report by Zoe Mullan, The Lancet Global Health
  • Decision recommendations and confidential notes to the editor by Bert van Blocken, The editor of Building and Environment 

The course content is delivered via directed self-learning in the form of ~3 hours of webinars, podcasts and questionnaires and can be tackled at the desired pace of the participant. It is our hope that the course will help to tackle the reviewer shortage issue that so many of our editors face and should also boost enthusiasm for initiatives such as VolunPeers.

*Our advisory board members are editors with years of experience in organizing peer review workshops:

  • Allyson Evans, Molecular Cell
  • Patricia Morton, Journal of Professional Nursing
  • Zoe Mullan, The Lancet Global Health
  • Peter Snyder, Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring
  • Bert Blocken, Building and Environment 
  • Steve Rosenstiel, The Journal of the Prosthetic Dentistry
  • Tim Donohoe, Tetrahedron Letters 
  • Ted Shortliffe, Journal of Biomedical Informatics

This free online course is now open for registration and so far has received 6200 registrations with almost 100 positive comments from enthusiastic researchers.

Researcher Academy will launch the course during the Peer Review Week on 17 September accompanied by email campaigns, social media blasts, an article in Reviewers’ Update and promotion on Researcher Academy.