Guide · Career and money

How to get paid to review papers

If you have been publishing for years, this rings a bell: three or four invitations to review papers every week, sometimes every day. Expert, rigorous work that takes time away from your own. And for which you earn nothing. This guide is about changing that.

This is the essentials, the framework I use, not a treatise. Just enough to start well and not waste time. The detail of your own case is what we work through in mentoring.

The system runs because you review for free

Peer review is the pillar that holds up the quality of what gets published. And it depends almost entirely on expert researchers who spend their time reviewing others’ work for nothing. Meanwhile, publishers profit. You put in the intellectual effort; someone else runs the business. It is not a conspiracy, it is simply how it is set up, and it pays to see it clearly before you decide what you do about it.

Two reactions to the same invitation

When the “would you kindly agree to act as a referee” email arrives, there are two paths:

• Accept for free, again and again. Some even show it off with pride: dozens of reviews a year, several a day. Time given away that comes out of your research, your family or your rest.
• Set your rate. Others push back against the unwritten rule and reply to each review invitation with their fees. No anger, no argument: they put a price on their expert time and let the system decide.

I am not telling you to do one or the other. I am telling you it is a decision, not an obligation, and most people never realise they can choose.

Where you actually get paid

• Offering your rate when reviewing papers. Some publishers and platforms already consider paying the reviewer. The key is to raise it well and without hang-ups.
• Paid review platforms. There are services that pay for quality reviews. Not a silver bullet, but they open the door.
• Reviewing projects and grants. This is where the real money is. Funding agencies do have budget to evaluate proposals. If you can review a project, that judgement gets paid, and considerably better than a single paper.

The mistake: confusing prestige with value

Reviewing for free for years does not build a career on its own. Real recognition, the kind that matters, comes when your judgement is worth enough for someone to pay for it. Rethinking how you value and charge for your review work is not greed: it is taking a proactive role in redefining your professional worth.