Reviewer Guidelines

Peer review decides what JHAI publishes, and it depends on reviewers giving their time. This page tells reviewers what the journal asks of them and explains how to join the reviewer pool.

Before you accept

  • Expertise. Accept only if you can judge the paper's method and contribution. It is fine to say you can review part of it; tell the editor which part.
  • Time. Reviews are due three weeks after you accept. If you need longer, ask the editor before accepting.
  • Conflicts. Decline if you have co-authored with, supervised or shared an institution with any author in the last five years, or have a financial interest in the work. If you think you know who the authors are, tell the editor. See the Conflict of Interest page.

What to assess

  1. Fit. Does the paper belong in the journal's scope?
  2. Originality. What does it add to existing work? Is prior work cited fairly?
  3. Method. Are the data, models and experiments suitable and properly described? For clinical prediction work, look for leakage between training and test patients, outcomes defined with information not available at prediction time, missing calibration, no external or temporal validation, and no ethics approval for patient data.
  4. Reproducibility. Could another researcher repeat the work from the paper, the data statement and the code?
  5. Results and conclusions. Do the conclusions follow from the evidence? Are limitations stated?
  6. Presentation. Is the paper clear and well organised? Are figures and tables readable? References must follow Vancouver style.
  7. Ethics. Are the ethics, conflict of interest, data and AI declarations present and believable?

Writing the report

  • Start with two or three sentences summarising the paper and its main claim.
  • List major concerns first, then minor points, numbered so the authors can reply to each.
  • Be specific and polite. Criticise the work, not the authors.
  • Do not put your recommendation in the comments to authors. Give it in the form, with any confidential remarks for the editor.
  • Do not ask authors to cite your own work unless it is clearly needed.

The possible recommendations are Accept, Minor revisions, Major revisions, Reject and resubmit, and Reject. They are explained on the Peer Review Process page.

Confidentiality and AI

Treat the manuscript as confidential. Do not share it, discuss it or use its content in your own work. Do not upload any part of it to ChatGPT or any other AI service. Details are in the AI Use Policy.

Suspected misconduct

If you suspect plagiarism, duplicate publication, fabricated data or manipulated images, tell the editor in the confidential comments. Do not contact the authors or anyone else. The editor will follow the Publication Ethics policy.

Recognition

Reviewers can ask for a certificate of reviewing, and can have their review recorded on their ORCID profile if they opt in.

Join the reviewer pool

Researchers with a doctorate, or equivalent experience, and a publication record in the journal's subject areas are welcome to apply.

  1. Register on the journal site, or log in if you already have an account.
  2. In your profile, tick the option to be contacted to review for JHAI and list your reviewing interests.
  3. Add your ORCID iD and affiliation.

The editors will contact you when a manuscript matches your expertise.

Effective from 26 September 2026.