You are paid to read a manuscript before it is submitted and tell the author what a referee would raise. You are paid for the work, never for the conclusion: what you recommend has no effect on what you earn.
How work reaches you
Manuscripts appear in your queue only when they match the fields you listed, are in a language you review in, and do not come from your own institution. Nothing outside that reaches you.
Several reviewers are invited for each manuscript and the first to accept takes it, so the others lapse. That keeps a small field from being spammed and means an invitation is worth answering quickly.
What you are paid
You set your own rate. The fee is frozen onto the manuscript at the moment you accept, so changing your rate later never alters work already under way, in either direction.
If you leave your rate at zero you are offered the standard fee for the tier the author bought. Payouts settle in US dollars and convert to your local currency, and you choose the method: PayPal, Wise, SEPA, PIX, UPI or bank transfer.
What a good review looks like here
Reviews are structured rather than written as an essay. Each finding is marked major, minor or a note, quotes the passage it refers to, and says what the author should change and why.
That structure is the product. An author can act on a list of specific findings; they cannot easily act on three paragraphs of general impressions.
Deadlines and holds
There is no cap on how many manuscripts you may take. What there is instead is a consequence for not delivering: once two accepted reviews are past their due date, new work stops being offered to you.
The hold lifts by itself the moment you clear the overdue work. There is no appeal to file and no administrator to email, because the condition is simply whether anything is outstanding.
Common questions
Am I paid more for recommending changes?
No. The fee is fixed when you accept the manuscript and does not vary with what you conclude. Paying per outcome would corrupt the review, so it is not how this works.
Can I review for a journal through CitePep?
No. CitePep does not referee for journals. Everything here is pre-submission review commissioned by an author, and a journal never receives your review as part of an editorial decision.
What if I am sent something outside my expertise?
Decline it. Matching is based on the fields and methods you list, so the fix is usually to make those more precise. Declining costs you nothing.
Can I be offered my own manuscript?
No. Author and reviewer accounts are separate even when one person holds both, and the matcher excludes anyone sharing your email, ORCID, institution or email domain.