Introduction:

Experts are a key factor in the assessment of scientific manuscripts.

Objective:

To assess the perception of Cuban biomedical journal’s experts in relation with the characteristics and skills that must be taken into account in the review of manuscripts.

Methods:

Descriptive research (September 2013-December 2014) carried out as part of the final project in the Course for Editors given by the Medical Sciences Publishing House (Editorial de Ciencias Médicas). The assessed group was formed by 57 referees. It was taken into account the opinion of the journal´s directors for their selection. Data collection was carried out by a questionnaire that explored socio-demographic variables related with the assessment process. Data were submitted in a database created with SPSS program, version 15.0 in Spanish.

Results:

The characteristics identified with a higher percentage of answers and essential importance were: ethical and responsible attitude: 45 referees (82 %); and there were updated in the assessed topic 42 experts (76 %). The skills with the same conditions were: to detect serious mistakes of form and content: 42 experts (76 %) and to be ethical in their critics: 38 experts (69 %). Other professional particularities as being objective in the report and to detect methodological mistakes that affect the quality of the text had lower percentages.

Conclusions:

Experts can recognize essential aspects for the assessment of manuscripts, which can influence in the positive result of their work as far as they assume it and use it practically emphasizing in those professional characteristics that had lower percentages of acknowledgement.

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