Science Careers Forum

Hi,
I really enjoy the process of being a reviewer. I am currently finishing my PhD (5th year), and I would like to get as much experience possible refereeing. Ideally, I would like to eventually serve on study sections and editorial boards. I know that's a long way off, but I want to build my CV with this in mind. I have refereed a few articles and grants informally, but I want to establish myself as a good reviewer in an official capacity. Does anyone have any advice that may help me get an official offer to referee for a journal, grant, or even a book chapter? I appreciate all insight!
Thanks,
JH

I don't know how universal this is between fields, but in my experience a PhD student would never be asked to review a paper in an official capacity. Once you are a more experienced postdoc, if your PI asks you to help him/her review a paper, you could request that he/she ask the journal to invite you instead (or in addition). However, some journals won't allow anyone who does not have a faculty appointment to serve as an official reviewer.

My experience is that getting opportunities to review journal articles is not going to be a problem. First, many PI's pass the responsibility on to their senior PhD students and post-docs to a) give them some valuable experience, and b) reduce their own work load. Second, if you're the corresponding author - or maybe even the first author, at many journals your name automatically gets put into the rotation to review papers on similar topics.