Peer review

Caravel Press uses double anonymous peer review. Every research article is assessed by at least two independent subject experts.

The model

Caravel Press operates double anonymous peer review. Reviewers are not told who the authors are, and authors are not told who the reviewers are.

This is not a setting that can be switched off. Author identity is held in a separate part of the system from the manuscript, and the reviewer's copy is assembled without it, so a reviewer cannot see an author's name, affiliation or funding even by accident.

Authors must remove identifying information from the manuscript file itself before submitting. The system cannot anonymise prose that names the authors' own institution or self-cites in the first person.

What happens to a submission

For reviewers

What Caravel Press asks of a reviewer, and what it offers in return.

Before you accept

Accept only if the paper is within your expertise. Declining is more useful than a review outside your field, and it is never held against you.
Decline if you have a competing interest: a recent collaboration, a shared institution, a commercial interest, or any relationship that a reader might reasonably think could colour your judgement. Say why, so the editor can find someone else quickly.
Accept only if you can complete the review within 14 days. If you need longer, say so when you accept and we will usually agree.

While you review

The manuscript is confidential. Do not share it, quote it, or use it in your own work, before or after publication.
Do not enter any part of it into a generative AI system. It is not yours to upload, and doing so is a breach of confidence.
Do not attempt to identify the authors, and tell the editor if you believe you have.
Write to the authors, not about them. Say what is wrong, why it matters, and what would fix it.

How we work

Reviewing for Caravel Press takes one click from an email. There is no dashboard to learn, no account to create before you can read the paper, and nothing to install.

You are told the outcome of every paper you review, and you see the other reviews for that round once the decision is made.

Recognition

Reviewing is unpaid work that holds the literature together, and we record it. A certificate is issued for every review, in your name, the day your report reaches the editors and whatever the paper's outcome. Reviewers reach Bronze, Silver, Gold and Diamond recognition as completed reviews accumulate, and receive a certificate at each level. Every certificate carries a serial that anyone you show it to can check.

We publish no list of our reviewers. Your credit is the certificate itself, which is in your name and carries a serial anyone you show it to can check, and the review recorded against your ORCID where you have given one.

Peer review

Peer review

The model

What happens to a submission

Withdrawing a submission

What reviewers are asked

Timings

Special issues and guest-edited collections

For reviewers

Before you accept

While you review

How we work

Recognition