Duties of Reviewers

Peer reviewers play an important role in maintaining the scientific rigour, quality, and credibility of the Malaysian Journal of Health Promotion (MJHP). Reviewers are expected to conduct their evaluations professionally, objectively, confidentially, and in accordance with recognised publication ethics standards.

Reviewers should provide objective and constructive evaluations that assist the Editorial Board in making informed publication decisions. Reviewer comments should also help authors improve the quality, clarity, and scholarly value of their manuscripts.

Reviewers who are unable to complete a review within the requested timeframe, or who consider themselves insufficiently qualified to evaluate the manuscript, should promptly inform the editor and decline the review invitation.

All manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not share, disclose, discuss, reproduce, or use unpublished information contained in a manuscript for personal, professional, or other purposes without appropriate authorisation.

Reviews must be conducted objectively and constructively. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their observations clearly and support their comments and recommendations with appropriate scholarly reasoning and evidence.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been appropriately acknowledged by the authors. Any suspected plagiarism, inappropriate text recycling, duplicate publication, data overlap, or other potential research integrity concerns should be promptly reported to the editor.

Reviewers must disclose any personal, professional, financial, institutional, or other competing interests that could affect their objectivity. Where a potential conflict may compromise an impartial assessment, the reviewer should decline the review invitation and inform the editor accordingly.

Reviewers are expected to uphold confidentiality, impartiality, professionalism, academic integrity, and ethical conduct throughout the peer-review process. Their evaluations should contribute to the quality and credibility of research published in the Malaysian Journal of Health Promotion.