The generous spirit of the peer review process: perspectives and insights from the HRDQ Editorial Team on providing high quality reviews

Are you inclined to “agree,” are you “unavailable,” or do you “decline” when you receive a personal review invitation from Human Resource Development Quarterly (HRDQ)? We sincerely hope that you will accept our invitations to perform reviews when we reach out to personally solicit your expertise. However, we do acknowledge that many reviewers immediately decline, note their lack of availability, or send us e-mails acknowledging the personal and professional commitments that preclude them from contributing to the journal in the capacity of a reviewer. We fully appreciate that many potential reviewers are being overly burdened with a high volume of review requests from many different journals, and that, at times, declining reviews may be necessary, particularly if declining is better than not delivering (Trevino, 2008). We realize that challenging work and unanticipated life event issues may present themselves, or that conflicts of interest might arise regarding author identity, or that performing a review by a specified due date may simply not be possible.