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How to get asked to referee?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, S writes:

How can I get papers to referee? Where to start? I am a junior researcher with a few publications, but not from EU or USA, and without much of a network. Any advices?

Several readers submitted replies. Michelle wrote:

[I]f the journals you are interested in refereeing for use Manuscript central or similar then create a profile and add you keywords. When the editor looks for reviewers you'll show up in the search. You can also email the journal and ask to be added to the reviewer list I imagine.

And Ref wrote:

You are less likely to be asked to referee for journal that you have not published in. So it is crucial that you publish in good places, if you want to referee paper for journals. I have refereed over 170 papers, many for leading journals in my sub-field – I am not junior. But that is largely because I have published in these journals (I also have three books with a leading press). Further, once you start refereeing, it helps if you are effective at getting useful reports in to the editor in a timely fashion. No kidding, most of the time I get my report in within 5 days of agreeing to referee the paper. Further, I write my reports for the editors – I given them a professional assessment of the paper, and provide justifications for my evaluation.

These both seem like good suggestions, though for what it is worth, I was asked to referee for a number of good journals early in my career before publishing all that much. What do you all think?

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5 responses to “How to get asked to referee?”

  1. associate prof at R1

    One thing that I suspect would work is letting people you know who are more senior than you/more likely to be getting a lot of requests that you are actively trying to referee more. I get a lot of requests and often just try to think of people off the top of my head to recommend. I think if a grad student, junior faculty member, etc. who worked in my areas actively told me that they really wanted to referee more, I would remember that in those moments.

    Reply
  2. referee #2000

    A serious question: do people write to journals that they respect and request to referee? I’ve never heard of that and have always assumed that journals just do the referee report requesting based on who’s working on what in the field.

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  3. Michel

    I’ve definitely been asked to referee more as I’ve published more, and as I’ve cemented my place in my subfield associations.
    A fair bit also comes down through my professional network. It hasn’t changed all that much since before I started publishing a lot, but what has changed is that more people in my network are now in positions where they need to find referees, and so they’re relying on their own networks, of which I’m a part.

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  4. Trystan Goetze

    In my experience, the simplest way to get more invitations to referee papers is to submit more papers. If your work was good (even if not deemed “publishable” by the referees), you will reliably be called upon to review a paper shortly after yours is rejected or accepted. More invitations will trickle in from those journals later.

    Reply
  5. in the red corner

    @referee #2000: In the past I have emailed journals I had published in and indicated that I would be able to referee papers in my AOSs. They wrote back and thanked me. I got some requests from those journals a few weeks later.
    Aside from that, my invitations to referee usually come to me through more senior people in my network declining invitations and passing my name to the editor that sent them the initial request.
    One other thing on the topic that blew my mind when I first heard about it: sometimes editors are at something of a loss when it comes to potential referees. So they’ll look, I have been told, at the references of a paper. They’ll find someone who is cited that is not outlandishly famous/busy/known to not reply and ping them. So, I guess, another way to get more invitations to referee is to be cited.

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