Co-review

Co-review definition

In co-review, the invited reviewer can work with a colleague (often a more junior researcher, for training purposes) to peer review a manuscript. This helps the junior researcher to gain credit for their contribution to peer review.

Co-review policy

All peer reviewers for IOP Publishing journals must follow COPE’s Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers, including respecting the confidentiality of peer review.

An invited reviewer can co-review a manuscript with someone else, as long as they tell the journal when they agree to review. IOP must be told the identity of the co-reviewer when the report form is submitted, or if the peer review task is abandoned. All reviewers must follow the Reviewer guidelines for IOP journals, including Ethics for reviewers.

How to co-review on NANOX, JOPT or JPhysD

If you wish to co-review, select the ‘Delegate with co-review’ link in the journal’s invitation email. You will be asked for the name of the person you will be co-reviewing with, and this person will then be invited by the journal to review the manuscript. They should accept the invitation and you can then work on the review together. The completed reviewer report form should be submitted to the journal through the co-reviewer’s ScholarOne account, including the name and affiliation(s) of the other co-reviewer within the ‘Comments to the Editor’ box of the form. If for any reason the peer review task is not completed, the reviewers must disclose the identity of any individual(s) they have shared the manuscript and/or supporting documents with by contacting the journal.

IOP processes all data in line with its privacy policy, available at ioppublishing.org/privacy-cookies-policy.

How to co-review on BMM or JPCO

When you submit your review you will see an option to tell us if you’ve worked with a co-reviewer. We will then add their details to our database and send them an email to say thanks. You can also invite them to share credit with you on Publons – see below.

How to co-review on any of our other journals

There is no formal process for co-review on most of our journals. If you intend to co-review a manuscript with someone else, please let the journal know when you accept the invitation, and declare the name, institution and email address of the person you are co-reviewing with. When you submit the review please mention again that this is a co-review in the “Comments to the Editor” section of the reviewer form.

How a co-reviewer can gain credit via Publons

The original invited reviewer (the “review owner”) should add the review to Publons. This will make it easier to have the review verified. Once this is done, the review owner can add collaborators via the review’s “Progress” page (accessed via the “Progress” column in your Publons review history).

The review owner can send this URL to the reviewer(s) they worked with. Those reviewers can follow the link to “claim” the review and put a copy of it in their review history. The review owner maintains control over the review’s display preferences, content, and the status of any review collaborators.