To my reviewers, with respect and gratitude: Guidelines from an author

Key points More often than authors would like, submitted manuscripts are returned to them for further revision. Most authors recognize that reviewer comments do help to improve articles, but many find reviewer comments unclear, inappropriate, unpleasant, and often frankly irritating. Reviewers should not review articles if they know they are incompetent or have strong opinions about the methodology or hypothesis. Reviewers should be brief, quick, clear, specific, and only ask what is feasible in a short period of time. Asking for full literature reviews, multiple additional references, and research background is often impossible given journal requirements for brevity.