Who are our reviewers and how do they review? The profile and work of Biological Conservation reviewers

To improve the present system of peer review of scientific papers, editors and publishers need to know: Who are the reviewers? How frequently do they decline or accept and complete their reviews? And what factors affect their willingness to accept reviews? We analyzed the peer review process for 1590 manuscripts submitted to the journal Biological Conservation during the period 2014–2015. Overall, 11,840 review invitations were sent to 6555 different reviewers. 60% of invited reviewers were from four large English-speaking countries—United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada—while only 1% or fewer of invited reviewers were from certain populous countries such as India and China. Considering only the first round of reviews, we found that, on average, editors invited 6.7 reviewers per manuscript, and reviewers accepted 37% of invitations. Reviewer gender, seniority, and academic productivity had no effect on acceptance rate. Reviewers from China accepted a higher proportion of invitations than did reviewers from any other country. Individuals who had accepted an invitation were more likely to accept a second invitation for a different manuscript, and reviewers who were fast with one review tended to be fast with the review of the next manuscript. Over 90% of reviewers completed their reviews, and most reviews were submitted on time. Editors should consider expanding the diversity of reviewers they invite, and particularly invite more scientists from under-represented countries