Purpose

Reviewers support the journal by providing independent, constructive assessments of the scientific quality, originality, ethics, and relevance of submitted work.

Confidentiality

Manuscripts and peer-review correspondence are confidential. Reviewers must not share, discuss, or upload manuscripts, supplementary files, confidential data, or review correspondence to external AI systems unless the journal has expressly permitted such use and confidentiality can be assured.

Conflicts of Interest

Reviewers decline assignments where they have a material financial, professional, personal, collaborative, or institutional conflict that could affect impartiality.

Objectivity and Respect

Comments focus on the science and are specific, evidence-based, and respectful. Reviewers do not use nationality, institution, geography, seniority, gender, or other irrelevant characteristics as grounds for evaluation.

AI and Automated Tools

Generative AI must not be used to generate the substance of the review report. Where the journal expressly permits language editing of a reviewer’s own text, the reviewer discloses that use to the editorial office.

Review Rubric

• Climate-health significance and originality.
• Validity and transparency of climate/environmental exposure data, including source, time period, spatial-temporal resolution, and version/date.
• Epidemiological or other study-design robustness, analytic validity, and handling of bias/confounding.
• Ethical and regulatory compliance.
• Results presentation, uncertainty quantification, and reproducibility.
• Discussion, limitations, policy or health-system relevance, and appropriate strength of conclusions.
• Reporting completeness and appropriate use of study-design reporting guidelines.

Recommendation

Reviewers may recommend Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject. The recommendation is advisory; the editor makes the final decision. A reviewer who identifies possible plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, image concerns, ethical problems, duplicate publication, or other integrity issues reports them confidentially to the handling editor.