question about being a reviewer for a journal for the 1st time

[fast_and_bulbous]

Sometimes after you wash all the grime away it reveals a clearly flawed object.

F&B, buddy, we talked about this. Quit looking over my shoulder when I'm working.

Whoops. Dangit, forgot, will try better next time ;)

[Puget]

Good for you adel for getting your first review done-- it will get easier and faster, and yes, it is part of service to the field to do at least as many reviews as you need for your own papers.

I take my responsibility as a reviewer extremely seriously and I think the majority of people in my field do as well. . .  In a way the reviewers are as important as the authors in making sure good science gets published, and that due diligence is observed on both sides.

Likewise. I've caught methodological and statistical problems in many papers where I've been alarmed that the other reviewers did not comment at all on these issues, so some people are clearly not being vigilant and attentive enough in their reviews. I'm also now always that reviewer who asks how the sample size was determined if there's no power analysis and how a priori the hypotheses really were if there's no preregistration. If we don't police ourselves carefully through peer review no one else will have reason to trust the science. 

I always worry when I review a paper, even one in my own narrow area of specialization.  I can go through the paper and advise on poor English word choice, punctuation, and so forth, and I can point out awkward phrasing and typos, but beyond that I'm at a loss.

Just curious-- I'm not in math, but from folks I've heard in math I've heard a big part of their job as a reviewer is to actually check all the math in the article and make sure it is correct, which makes reviews a big project compared to most fields. Is that not the case for you?

As a grad student I used to worry a bit with each paper I reviewed that I wouldn't come up with anything useful to critique, but that never happened and eventually I stopped worrying about it. I also only accept reviews where I'm clearly the person to review it, which ensures I'll have something useful to contribute and keeps them to a reasonable number (also OK to say no when you simply don't have time or to low-quality journals/papers.