What happens to peer review when you can't find a peer? Here is what you see when you can't find a referee for a paper submitted to an Elsevier journal:
This is not an atypical paper. I try potential referees who are experts in the area (searching for keywords in Google Scholar and Scopus), authors of papers in the reference section, referees suggested by the authors, referees suggested by the Elsevier Electronic System, colleagues, friends and neighbors. Potential referees are often too busy (with a stack of other reviews), not in the correct field to review the paper, or much, much worse, ignore the request ("un-invited before agreeing to review"). I understand all this but when I go oh for ten I begin to wonder what the point of it is.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I don't have this problem for MRE where I typically ask two people to referee and they are both happy to do it.
Also, I think I agree to about 5 out of 6 referee requests.
