Comprehensive peer review training

On this page you can find an overview of how to critique a scientific manuscript and what to look for when acting as a peer reviewer. However, IOP Publishing also offers a free, comprehensive online training course leading to IOP Trusted Reviewer certification.

Our Peer Review Excellence course takes around 90 minutes to complete. You can register for free here: Peer Review Excellence.

When you review a manuscript for any IOP Publishing journal you are eligible for IOP Trusted Reviewer certification.

Our editors rate all of the reviews we receive on a scale of 1-5, with 5 representing a review of outstanding quality. Any reviewer who submits a report rated 5 will achieve IOP Trusted Reviewer status and become eligible for our Reviewer Awards. For reviewers who have completed our Peer Review Excellence training, the threshold for IOP Trusted Reviewer status is a review rated 4 or above.

Please note that in cases where the manuscript editor rescinds a reviewer report due to excessive self-citation, citation manipulation, or any other form of reviewer misconduct, the re-submitted report will receive a maximum rating of 2.

This document shows how we use the 5-point Reviewer score to rate reviews.

These documents contain examples of outstanding reviews in the fields of:

• Smart Materials
• Laser-Induced Fluorescence
• Plasmas
• Medical Imaging
• Quantum Computing
• Cosmology
• Medical Physics
• Piezoelectric Energy

This document contains examples of reviews rated 1, 3, and 5.