In late September, just as the autumn was rolling in, Cell Press and the rest of the world of scientific publishing got busy recognizing reviewers and the process of peer review.

Peer Review Week 2016 brought together blog posts, webinars, panel discussions, and videos that covered topics from the need to stand up for peer review to the need for recognition and innovation in peer review. Here at CrossTalk, we shared tips for reviewers and heard from some of Structure's most active reviewers.

The dust has now settled on Peer Review Week, but that doesn't mean that we don't continue to think about the peer review process and our reviewers. On a more personal level, over the last month or so, I've had some time to reflect on the peer review, why I think it's valuable, and reminisce about my first reviewer assignment.

This also got me thinking about a question I'm often asked by early-career researchers: "How do I become a reviewer?" Most early-career researchers who ask this have experienced what it means to be on the receiving end of the peer-review process as an author, and they're very energized to get involved more deeply and get involved in the peer-review process as referees. When I ask why, they tell me that their interest is fueled by eagerness to become more active and visible in their scientific field and contribute to advancing the science as well as the need for professional development and growth.

Overall, early-career researchers recognize that serving as a peer reviewer does help expand an important skillset that includes critical thinking, attention to detail, giving both positive and negative feedback, and respecting the ideas of others while at the same time being able to assert your own opinions. I'll say no more on the topic of how to be a good reviewer (because that deserves a post or two on its own) and focus on providing some advice on how to become a reviewer in the first place.

1.Tell your boss you'd like to learn about the peer review

My top piece of advice to anyone who has ever asked me about how to get involved in scientific peer review is to approach an advisor, mentor, or senior colleague and tell them you're interested in learning how to be a reviewer and offer to help them next time they have a reviewer assignment. Most of us learn how to review papers through an apprenticeship relationship like this one. An advisor shares with a trainee a paper under review and asks for comments that the advisor then looks over and discusses with the trainee before submitting them to the journal. Through this process, trainees learn about structuring comments and feedback and the nuts and bolts of peer review, and advisors learn more about their protégés and how they think.

Ideally, over time, your advisor will be confident enough in your ability to provide expert review on a given topic that they'll start recommending you directly to editors as an alternative on those occasions when they decline an invitation to review due to time constraints and other commitments. When that happens, editors may extend their invitation directly to you and give you a chance to serve as a reviewer independent of your advisor.

2. Write Reviews, Perspectives, and Commentaries

Although the majority of early-career researchers feel a great deal of pressure to publish, this pressure is really limited to publishing research articles. But writing non-research scientific articles, like Reviews, Perspectives, and Commentaries is an excellent way to practice your ability to think broadly about science, form an opinion about what key questions in a specific field are, navigate and discuss published literature, and place your viewpoint in the context of the field.

Great Reviews have the power to change the direction of the field and can strengthen the reputation of their authors. For anyone who's interested in serving as a peer reviewer, writing a non-research scientific article also offers an opportunity to practice writing and offering scientific arguments in a concise form, which is a skill that translates well into what we expect to see from the reviewers.

3. Build your voice by helping others

As a graduate student and a postdoc, you also have a number of different opportunities to build your voice. By that I mean that we all need to develop an ability to communicate very complex ideas with relative ease to both experts and those who, although generally knowledgeable, may not have hands-on experience with a specific idea or area of research.

Additionally, interacting with peers in your lab or your department offers an excellent opportunity to practice giving and receiving scientific feedback and engaging in scientific conversations and discussions. Offering to comment on grant proposals, manuscript drafts, or presentations and posters that your colleagues are putting together are easy ways to get engaged and practice what being a peer reviewer is all about. Think about all the opportunities that you have already at your disposal within your local community to comment on work of others and receive comments on your own work and try to get as much from those informal interactions as possible. Offer to lead journal club discussions, provide comments during the group meetings, or form an interest group around a technique that several labs in your neighborhood share.

You may also consider using social media to share your scientific insights and views or comment on the work of others publicly online. These are all valuable ways to engage with science, fellow scientists, and the broader public, but in order for any of this to count towards building your visibility and reputation, you need to make a decision to engage as yourself, and not anonymously. For some, this will be an easy decision to make, for others a more complicated one, but social media is a place where a lot of scientific ideas are being shared and discussed, so it would be amiss of me not to mention it.

4. Network, network, network

Journal editors, whether they're professional editors like myself or active scientists, are engaged and visible in their communities. We're genuinely interested in meeting early-career researchers and hearing what they're excited about, what they're working on, and what they're thinking about. So, if you're interested in becoming a peer reviewer, taking the time to engage with an editor and learn about the scope and interest of their journal and what they value in a reviewer is an easy first step in building a lasting relationship with a journal and through it with the community it serves.

You may also consider contacting journals and journal editors directly and offering your services. Some journals actually encourage you to do so, but here I would advise some caution. Unless you know and respect the journal yourself, it might be best to do some research on the journal and ask your more senior colleagues about their experience with that publication, and if it looks like your expertise matches the scope of the journal and your senior colleagues view the journal as having a strong reputation, go for it and express your interest.

Depending on a journal you may get a set of guidelines to follow. For example, we have reviewer instructions that help orient our reviewers about what we expect from them and what they can expect from us. But, if you ever have a question or a concern, get in touch with the editor, and we can help you out. As with everything else, developing strong peer-review skills takes time, and becoming a reviewer is just the first step.