What are the differences between the roles of an editor and a reviewer in a journal?

Editors manage the journal's peer review process and make final acceptance decisions for submitted manuscripts. Reviewers, typically subject experts, critically evaluate specific manuscripts for scholarship, methodology, and contribution at the editor's request. Editors bear overall responsibility for content quality and journal direction. Key editorial duties include initial manuscript screening for scope and suitability, selecting appropriate expert reviewers, synthesizing reviewer comments, guiding authors on required revisions, and making final publish/reject decisions. Reviewers, invited by the editor, provide confidential, specialized assessments on rigor, originality, clarity, and significance within their expertise. Their primary responsibility is unbiased technical evaluation against scholarly standards; they recommend acceptance, revision, or rejection based on manuscript merit, thereby informing the editor's ultimate decision. Editors maintain communication with authors throughout the process. This distinct but interdependent collaboration ensures rigorous scholarly evaluation. The editor serves as the gatekeeper and coordinator, leveraging reviewer expertise for specialized assessment. Reviewers supply critical, independent scrutiny. The system provides authors with expert feedback, upholding the integrity and advancement of published research within the journal's aims and scope.