> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.nuvolos.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.nuvolos.com/how-to-guides/workflows-for-researchers/inviting-a-reviewer.md).

# Invite an external reviewer

<mark style="color:$primary;">**Outcome**</mark>\
You give an external reviewer (such as a journal editor) an isolated copy of your complete research environment to inspect and re-run, without exposing any of your other work.

<mark style="color:$primary;">**Before you start**</mark>

* You are a **Space Administrator** of the research project.
* Your research project contains everything the reviewer needs: Applications, source code, and data.
* You understand that this approach is not suitable for double-blind anonymous review (see *Limitations* below).

The pattern is straightforward: take a snapshot of your work, create a dedicated instance for the reviewer, distribute the snapshot into it, then invite the reviewer to that single instance only.

### Set up the reviewer Instance

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
Take a snapshot of the Instance containing your complete research environment.&#x20;

See [How-to › Common Workflows › Create a snapshot](/how-to-guides/common-workflows/snapshots/create-a-snapshot.md).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Create a new instance in the same space.

See [Create alternate approaches](/how-to-guides/workflows-for-researchers/create-alternate-approaches.md) above.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Distribute the snapshot from step 1 to the new instance.

See [How-to › Common Workflows › Distribute content](/how-to-guides/common-workflows/object-distribution.md).
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Invite the reviewer to the new Instance as an Instance Editor.&#x20;

See [Invite collaborators](/how-to-guides/workflows-for-researchers/invite-collaborators.md) above.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

The reviewer can now access an exact copy of your environment, re-run code, and verify your results - without seeing anything else in your organisation.

### **Limitations**

* **Not suitable for anonymous reviewers**. As the Space Administrator, you create the Instance and handle invitations directly, so you will always know the identity of users in your Space.
* **Reviewers cannot invite others**. Instance Editor does not include the right to invite further users. If a journal editor needs to bring in additional reviewers, they cannot do so with this setup - they must ask you to extend the invitations.