Asked to review a paper

[GrumpySusan]

But looking at the abstract, neither the subject nor methodology are my area of expertise. Do I just decline or could there be another reason I've been requested?

Just decline if you don't feel able to comment, it's fine. Sometimes abbreviations across topics get you flagged up incorrectly eg I am an expert on fjs but get asked to do reviews on fjrs (abbreviation changed for anonymity!)

Yes, I agree. They're not always that careful - I once got asked to review my own paper! I was a middle author, but still... (the editor then came back to me asking for reviewer recommendations because apparently they'd had lots of trouble finding anyone)

Some good advice I was given was to only review papers that I would want to read once published - I.e. the topic was one related to my research interests or methods I would like to learn about. I sometimes review papers that have one of these, and clearly state to the editor that my area of expertise does not cover the other dimension. There may be exceptions but i wouldn't advise anyone to review a paper that they couldn't comment on the research area or methods, there's nothing in it for you and there's nothing in it for the author.

Thanks all, I decided to decline on this one. I wouldn't want someone to review a paper of mine if they didn't know a bit about the subject and/or method.

NotnowBernard that's what I do, I get quite a lot of requests now as I'm in a popular field with probably more articles than reviewers, and I only say yes to papers I genuinely would like to read anyway and are right up my street. Anything a bit off to the side, or with a method I can't fully evaluate, I pass that along. I probably say yes to only 1 in 3/4 requests (but some are irrelevant- the journals where the request is well targetted or it's a great journal that values my expertise a lot, I would do).