What does a PCI Microbiol recommender do?

A PCI Microbiol recommender is analogous to an associate editor at a peer reviewed journal. Each recommender is expected to manage the evaluation process for one or two articles per year, on average. Recommenders evaluate and may recommend articles that have not been published by or submitted to a journal. Evaluating a preprint means playing a role similar to that of a journal editor (finding reviewers, collecting reviews, making editorial decisions based on reviews) and, possibly, recommending the article after several rounds of review. Recommenders deciding to recommend a particular article write a “recommendation” for that article, which has its own DOI and is published by PCI Microbiol. The recommendation is a short article, similar to a News & Views piece. It has its own title, contains between about 300 and 1500 words, describes the context and explains why the article is particularly interesting. This text also contains references (referring at least to the article recommended).

Recommenders typically handle submissions either within or close to their own specialty. They are expected to comply with PCI Microbiol's code of conduct, they are eligible for selection as a member of the Managing Board, and can propose the nomination of new recommenders to the Managing Board. See the PCI Microbiol Guidelines for Recommenders for more information.

Interested in becoming a recommender at PCI Microbiol? 

New recommenders are nominated by current recommenders and approved by the Managing Board of PCI Microbiol. If you are interested in becoming a recommender, please contact a current recommender in your field or send us an email: contact@microbiol.peercommunityin.org.

The Managing Board of PCI Microbiol usually selects people who have gained experience as a reviewer for Q1 journals, have at least a couple of papers with their name in first or last position or as corresponding author, and have conducted independent research within any of the thematic fields of PCI Microbiol. If a potential new recommender does not fit these requirements, but would like to become a recommender and see themselves fit to take on this role for other reasons, then please contact us at: contact@microbiol.peercommunityin.org.

PCI has signed the Joint Statement of Principles of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication, which we at PCI Microbiol fully support. We aim to have strong representation across fields of research, geographic regions, genders, and other areas in which some groups of people have been traditionally underrepresented in academia.