The ethics of reviewing

As a reviewer you see unpublished work and hold real power over it. COPE's ethical guidelines for peer reviewers set out the duties.

Confidentiality

• The manuscript is confidential. Don't share it, discuss it, or use its ideas or data before publication.
• Don't contact the authors.
• Don't upload it to AI tools. Many publishers forbid it, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) banned the use of generative AI in its peer review in 2023, because it breaks confidentiality.

Conflicts of interest

Decline, or tell the editor, if you:

• work closely with, or recently worked with, the authors;
• compete directly on the same problem;
• have a financial interest in the result;
• can't be fair for any other reason.

Competence and time

• Only accept if you have the expertise, or tell the editor which parts you can and can't judge.
• Accept only if you can finish on time. If you can't, decline quickly so the editor can find someone else.

Fairness

• Judge the work, not who you guess the authors are.
• Don't demand citations to your own papers unless they're truly needed.
• Report suspected misconduct (plagiarism, image manipulation) to the editor, not to the world.

RememberKeep the paper confidential (including from AI tools), declare conflicts, accept only what you can judge and finish, and be fair.