Can I recommend my own [non-academic] article to an author in a peer review?

Question

I am currently peer-reviewing a paper for a journal. I will recommend acceptance with majors, though the journal has asked for any other citations which may be useful to be presented to the author.

I have written one such article for an online publication which was published a few years ago. It is not an academic article, but is it extremely relevant to the author's paper. Still, the author would not read it or cite it if it weren't for my recommendation. Also, this article is written under a pseudonym, so the citation would never come back to me.

Should I recommend this article or leave it out of the review?

Answer 1

If your article is relevant to the paper then it is desirable to recommend it. You should bear in mind that reviewers are usually selected precisely because they are experts in the relevant subject matter, which often means they have published relevant things in that area. In some cases, a reviewer will have written one or more papers that are relevant to what they're reviewing, and indeed, this may even be the basis for their selection as a reviewer.

In this kind of situation, the editors already know who you are, so they will notice if you recommend citation of your own paper. If the editors have any concerns about the impartiality of this recommendation, they are free to view your paper themselves to determine its relevance, and let the author know to ignore that recommendation if needed. If you really want to head off any possible issue, you can specifically draw this aspect of your review to the attention of the editor when you submit your review (there is usually a section to allow direct comments to the editor that the author does not see).

Answer 2

This is an ethical question about exploiting your role as a reviewer. If you cannot possibly profit from the recommendation and if you make it clear that acceptance of your recommendation does not influence your evaluation of the paper, then there can be no exploitation. The suitability of the citation will depend on the outlet. Online can mean many things, from blog to prestigious journal, but you will now better.

You can clear this with the editor. Editors tend to be reasonable people and no reasonable person would think that you are doing something unethical.