the reason why for the e-mail?

[ahmet]

a wery well known brand of journal group's member journal today has sent me an invitation to assess a manuscript. I am investigating the reason why for the case. 

have an idea?

Edited February 11 by ahmet

[Bufofrog]

6 hours ago, ahmet said:

I am investigating the reason why for the case. 

have an idea?

Probably your ex-wife's uncle suggested you should review it.

[ahmet]

2 hours ago, Bufofrog said:

Probably your ex-wife's uncle suggested you should review it.

Do not please tease with the people you do not know!

it might negatively affect you.

[Bufofrog]

10 minutes ago, ahmet said:

Do not please tease with the people you do not know!

it might negatively affect you.

How could it negatively affect me?

Do you realize that nobody could possibly give you any 'ideas' since you did not give enough information to know what you are talking about?

 

[joigus]

9 hours ago, ahmet said:

a wery well known brand of journal group's member journal today has sent me an invitation to assess a manuscript. I am investigating the reason why for the case. 

have an idea?

If you don't have a previous trajectory as a referee for anything in the way of 'well known brand of journal group's member journal', I would suggest you might just have been targeted for a phishing attempt, and you should be careful. There are other less dangerous attempts to scam you that would look very much like that.

The very fact that you feel compelled to 'investigate the reason for the case' suggest to me there might be something 'phishy' behind this.

It's just a gut feeling. I hope none of this negatively affects anyone.  

 

[ahmet]

59 minutes ago, joigus said:

If you don't have a previous trajectory as a referee for anything in the way of 'well known brand of journal group's member journal', I would suggest you might just have been targeted for a phishing attempt, and you should be careful. There are other less dangerous attempts to scam you that would look very much like that.

The very fact that you feel compelled to 'investigate the reason for the case' suggest to me there might be something 'phishy' behind this.

It's just a gut feeling. I hope none of this negatively affects anyone.  

 

how may a well known brand of a journal try to give harm to me? (I do not say that it cannot be a case, but do not know much too)

I contacted to their support service, they confirmed that that manuscript was waited my decision to accept the invitation or not. meanwhile, am I allowed to share the name of that brand?

note please I saw the manuscript abstract also in my account of that journal. They say I need to make a decision on whether I wanted to accept or not and I need to send my comments (assessment) to them within 14 days. I think that this is an official request but why did they select me is interesting. Because I thought just like you. 

1 hour ago, Bufofrog said:

How could it negatively affect me?

 

 

ok. continue to act in that way. you will eventually learn how it is.

joigus, what is your personal idea?

should I reject the invitation?

I have no formal academic background except a strong BSc program. 

if you meant that someone else may give harms to me, then could you clarify how?

Edited February 11 by ahmet

[Moontanman]

29 minutes ago, ahmet said:

ok. continue to act in that way. you will eventually learn how it is.

A threat ahmet? 

[ahmet]

3 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

A threat ahmet? 

nope. I just said that if he continues to act in that way, someone else might consider that. not me. 

Edited February 11 by ahmet

[joigus]

3 hours ago, ahmet said:

ok. continue to act in that way. you will eventually learn how it is.

This did come across as threatening. I take it that's not what you meant, but it did sound like that.

3 hours ago, ahmet said:

joigus, what is your personal idea?

should I reject the invitation?

Ok. Yes. That's my personal idea. You say you have no academic background and a prestigious journal asks you to referee for them? Seriously?

It's like when a very hot young lady asks me to contact her on FB. Do you seriously think life is just that kind?

I'm just trying to be helpful here. And Bufofrog probably was too, although by using humour. 

[ahmet]

20 minutes ago, joigus said:

This did come across as threatening. I take it that's not what you meant, but it did sound like that.

nope. forget please it anyway.

 

20 minutes ago, joigus said:

Ok. Yes. That's my personal idea. You say you have no academic background and a prestigious journal asks you to referee for them? Seriously?

It's like when a very hot young lady asks me to contact her on FB. Do you seriously think life is just that kind?

I'm just trying to be helpful here. And Bufofrog probably was too, although by using humour. 

no I did not say I have no academic background. I said I have no formal academic background. These are not same. 

Edited February 11 by ahmet

[joigus]

13 minutes ago, ahmet said:

no I did not say I have no academic background. I said I have no formal academic background. This are not same. 

Oh well. That probably changes everything then.  

[exchemist]

5 hours ago, ahmet said:

how may a well known brand of a journal try to give harm to me? (I do not say that it cannot be a case, but do not know much too)

I contacted to their support service, they confirmed that that manuscript was waited my decision to accept the invitation or not. meanwhile, am I allowed to share the name of that brand?

note please I saw the manuscript abstract also in my account of that journal. They say I need to make a decision on whether I wanted to accept or not and I need to send my comments (assessment) to them within 14 days. I think that this is an official request but why did they select me is interesting. Because I thought just like you. 

ok. continue to act in that way. you will eventually learn how it is.

joigus, what is your personal idea?

should I reject the invitation?

I have no formal academic background except a strong BSc program. 

if you meant that someone else may give harms to me, then could you clarify how?

Is the journal reputable or is it one of those potentially predatory ones that appear on Beall’s List, for example? You can I think share the name of it if you like. I can’t see why doing so would be a problem.

[swansont]

16 hours ago, ahmet said:

a wery well known brand of journal group's member journal today has sent me an invitation to assess a manuscript. I am investigating the reason why for the case. 

have an idea?

Is this something you’ve done before, or in your area of competence? Do you know how they know of you? Could they have mistaken you for someone else?

As has been noted, you have not given much context for the situation.

[CharonY]

One should also add that given the glut of journals out there, peer-reviewers are hard to come by. In the olden days, reviewers were picked by editors who are generally also researchers. Now, many editors are, well, not researchers, and seemingly use some automated system to blast folks with review requests (especially the newer journals, but it seems like an industry-wide trend).

 But assuming this is a scientific journal, it still would be unusual to have the system pick someone up with no formal academic affiliation. At worst, the system usually picks up students who had authorship in a paper that seemed similar (and there at least the university address would be present). The only other reason I could think of is mixing up of names. 

[ahmet]

8 hours ago, joigus said:

Oh well. That probably changes everything then.  

   

6 hours ago, exchemist said:

Is the journal reputable or is it one of those potentially predatory ones that appear on Beall’s List, for example? You can I think share the name of it if you like. I can’t see why doing so would be a problem.

I am avare of Beall's List. And this, I think cannot be a unique cireterion. Anyway, I am going to explain which journal it was. 

it is MethodsX ,Elsevier. 

yeah yes, I also consider Elsevier and Springer might be accepted as predatory even though they do not appear on Beall's list. 

6 hours ago, swansont said:

Is this something you’ve done before, or in your area of competence? Do you know how they know of you? Could they have mistaken you for someone else?

As has been noted, you have not given much context for the situation.

if you ask that whether I previously carried out peer (review) job, no. 

if you ask, whether I published with any scientific journal, no; but I attempted many times to publish, stating that I submitted my 1-2 or more mansucripts more than several journals, then yes. maybe, we can dicuss other details on external issue of this subject in another thread. 

the journal is as you see is multidisciplinary I think, but the editor who sent me the information falls in my area of competence,yes. 

 

Edited February 12 by ahmet

[swansont]

7 hours ago, ahmet said:

the journal is as you see is multidisciplinary I think, but the editor who sent me the information falls in my area of competence,yes.

So if the were aware of you, (perhaps seen a submission of yours) it’s possible this was the reason.

I recall for one journal submission I was asked to recommend possible reviewers, i.e. people who did related research. If the author was aware of you, that might be the motivation.

 

[ahmet]

56 minutes ago, swansont said:

So if the were aware of you, (perhaps seen a submission of yours) it’s possible this was the reason.

I recall for one journal submission I was asked to recommend possible reviewers, i.e. people who did related research. If the author was aware of you, that might be the motivation.

 

so, do you mean that the selection was not a mistake, it was by their demand (and free will),Right ? 

if yes, and what do you think  on what I should do?

will it be logical if I accept. I know you will presumably think like: "this is your decision, if you want you can accept , if not you can decline"

but I want to ask more, what will I have as a benefit (if I accept) if the understandings I made are correct here?

someone may think like : "you will be a reviewer of scientific article" but... are there some more embodiment?

a clue for you to make a constructive but personalzed comment: I think the article abstract might not be sufficiently or directly relevant to my interests. (Currently I cannot see the full article, just abstract is viewable)

Edited February 12 by ahmet

[Phi for All]

20 hours ago, ahmet said:

I contacted to their support service, they confirmed that that manuscript was waited my decision to accept the invitation or not.

Was the number for "their support service" in the same email as the offer?

[ahmet]

10 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Was the number for "their support service" in the same email as the offer?

support service did not start to work by itself without effect. I mean after offer reached to me, I contacted to support service. 

[Phi for All]

25 minutes ago, ahmet said:

support service did not start to work by itself without effect.

I don't know what this means.

25 minutes ago, ahmet said:

I mean after offer reached to me, I contacted to support service. 

I understand, and I'm asking where did you get the number for support services? Did you look it up independently, or was the contact number/link/email conveniently included in the email you received?

 

[ahmet]

4 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

I understand, and I'm asking where did you get the number for support services? Did you look it up independently, or was the contact number/link/email conveniently included in the email you received?

it was not by phone call. I mean chat service as support service. I look it up independently and their support service confirmed that I was offered for (peer) review when I provided the article number based on the supporter's question. 

Edited February 12 by ahmet

[CharonY]

11 hours ago, ahmet said:

if you ask, whether I published with any scientific journal, no; but I attempted many times to publish, stating that I submitted my 1-2 or more mansucripts more than several journals, then yes. maybe, we can dicuss other details on external issue of this subject in another thread. 

Generally speaking, if you have not been successfully through the peer-review process, it is not ideal to agree to write a review. It is time-consuming especially if you are not familiar with the literature in the field. 

 

3 hours ago, ahmet said:

but I want to ask more, what will I have as a benefit (if I accept) if the understandings I made are correct here?

If you mean to say what benefits you will have: none. Peer-review is a free service provided by scholars. I also do not want to be mean, but your writing is sometimes difficult to understand. A review written with similar issues would unfortunately not be helpful.

[ahmet]

25 minutes ago, CharonY said:

Generally speaking, if you have not been successfully through the peer-review process, it is not ideal to agree to write a review. It is time-consuming especially if you are not familiar with the literature in the field. 

actually I can see just abstract. Of course an abstract may include many contexts but...

what do you mean by "being succesfull through peer review process". I submitted articles to many journals but never received direct acceptance. Also, there is just one acceptance but even this was with minor revision demand. I still did not deal with that aricle. 

25 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I also do not want to be mean

no, not a problem. I understand. Thank you for feedback. I shall try to be more careful than ever if I aggree to assess the manuscript. Thank you. 

a question: I presume that I wouldn't have option to decline the duty again in case I push to "agree to assess/invitation" button,right?

Edited February 12 by ahmet

[Genady]

3 hours ago, swansont said:

I recall for one journal submission I was asked to recommend possible reviewers

My mentor's advice was that if a journal asks to recommend possible reviewers, recommend authors from your references - it will improve chances to get positive reviews. I did so once and received a very good review indeed. (This does not apply to the OP, evidently.)

[CharonY]

25 minutes ago, ahmet said:

a question: I presume that I wouldn't have option to decline the duty again in case I push to "agree to assess/invitation" button,right?

You can always decline, but the issue is that if you agree first and then realize that you won't be able to provide helpful feedback, then the manuscript just sits there and the editor has to find a new reviewer which can take time. So it could be unfair for the authors, to some degree.

 

Generally, one should have a good sense after reading the abstract whether ones background is sufficient to review it (though I had one or two bait-and-switch manuscripts). 

25 minutes ago, ahmet said:

what do you mean by "being succesfull through peer review process". I submitted articles to many journals but never received direct acceptance. Also, there is just one acceptance but even this was with minor revision demand. I still did not deal with that aricle. 

Yes normally reviewers are folks who successfully publish articles. But the fact that you have been submitting might why editors have your contact info. It is still unusual and probably points to the changing publishing landscape (and some quality issues in science in general- though not sure how much is real and how much is just part of getting old).