A systematic guide to reviewing a manuscript.

OBJECTIVE In this article, we provide a step-by-step guide to reviewing a manuscript that we hope will improve the quality of reviews for the AJR. CONCLUSION We have provided a detailed series of guidelines for providing excellent reviews of manuscripts. The template we have provided can be used to serve as a checklist for important questions to ask about manuscripts during the review process. Finally, the principles presented here also can be used as a guide for authors by providing a list of important features to include during manuscript preparation and thereby prospectively address questions that good reviewers are likely to ask.