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DeskReview Local App for Mac

Review manuscripts confidentially on your Mac.

Built for editors and reviewers who handle confidential manuscripts regularly. Read, check, and review research in one workspace, with AI running on your Mac.

A quick tour of DeskReview Local · Narration and English captions
Music: “Riverboat Shuffle”, Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines (1924), public domain.

DeskReview Local

Free beta

Version 0.4.8 · 25 MB18 Oct 2026

16 GB memory · 24 GB recommended10 GB free storage

Download for Mac

Notarized by Apple

16 GB memory (24 GB recommended) · 10 GB free storage

Support author confidentiality

Analyze manuscripts on your Mac. You choose whether to enable online registry checks.

No token or AI subscription costs

Analyze as many manuscripts as you like, without per-request charges or a separate AI subscription.

Support for a growing workload

Let checks run in the background while you work, with findings saved alongside each manuscript.

For the people behind every paper

A closer look. At every stage.

Check reporting completeness, references and manuscript details in one workspace, so your time can go toward assessing the contribution and giving useful feedback.

An author working on her manuscript at a laptop
For authors

Is your paper ready to submit?

Catch issues before an editor sees them. Check your manuscript for integrity, reporting completeness and submission readiness.

An editor considering a manuscript at his laptop
For editors

Is this manuscript ready for peer review?

Check basic quality and completeness before inviting reviewers. See what needs attention before the manuscript moves forward.

A reviewer reflecting on a manuscript beside her laptop
For reviewers

Is your review helpful and complete?

Spend less time on routine checks. Make more room to weigh the evidence, consider the ideas and write a thoughtful review.

Inside the workspace

Key features

Six places in the side rail guide your work, from checking the manuscript to sharing your review. Explore a feature to see its screenshots.

Counts

Quick checks before editorial review.

Guidelines

Check what the manuscript reports, item by item.

AI review

A second pair of eyes to help you prepare your review.

Comment

Keep your thinking private until you choose to share it.

Chat

Ask about this manuscript, with answers written on your Mac.

Reports

Keep a record of your findings and choose what to share.

Reading & workspace

Inside DeskReview Local

Setup, privacy & the AI model

What you need to get started, and what stays on your Mac.

You need an Apple-silicon Mac with at least 16 GB of unified memory and 10 GB of free storage; 24 GB of memory is recommended.

Open the downloaded file and drag DeskReview Local into Applications. The AI engine is included. On first launch, allow time for the one-time AI model download, approximately 8 GB; an internet connection is required.

Gemma 4 12B from Google DeepMind, under the Apache 2.0 licence. It runs on your Mac through Ollama, which is built into the app and accepts connections only from this Mac.

The model comes from Ollama’s public model library. If you already have it in Ollama, DeskReview uses it without another download. No account or separate Ollama installation is needed.

Your manuscript is analyzed on your Mac and is never uploaded. The AI model downloads once on first launch.

Online registry checks are on by default:

  • Author names: OpenAlex, then ORCID and Semantic Scholar.
  • Affiliation names: the Research Organization Registry (ROR).
  • References: Crossref and OpenAlex.

Switch a registry check off by removing its tile in Customize.

To find similar publications, a few search phrases generated from the title and abstract go to OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar and PubMed. The title and abstract themselves are not sent.

Only install copies downloaded directly from this page. The app is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

Installer SHA-256 checksum:

45b9ba1a284bbf493489bc257f38bb26fcde4eae0b508ec66f402ac5ae7fa710

Guideline checks and AI review may take longer on your Mac, depending on your hardware and manuscript. We haven’t yet measured a reliable speed or reasoning-quality comparison between the two versions.

Your next manuscript, on your Mac

Make room for a closer look.

Bring your reading, checks and review notes into one private workspace.

Download for Mac

Free beta · Apple silicon · 16 GB memory · 10 GB free storage