Archives: Questions

Yes. One of the authors must complete and submit the journal’s copyright form prior to acceptance. For articles published on a subscription basis, this generally transfers copyright in the article to IOP and/or its licensor(s) on acceptance of the article and for articles published on a gold open access basis in IOP journals, it gives IOP a non-exclusive licence to publish the article.  It also confirms various things, including that the work is original and that it is based on valid research.

If you, as the Named Author(s), do not own the copyright in the Article because, for example, it was prepared as part of your duties as employee(s), and/or as part of a “work for hire” arrangement, please:

warrant you have all the rights necessary to enter into the agreement on behalf of the Copyright Owner, by filling in the full name of the organisation/company who owns the copyright in the Copyright Owner box and entering your name and the date at the bottom of the agreement. (Please ensure that you have made the Copyright Owner aware of the terms of the agreement and that you have their authority to enter into the agreement on their behalf).  If the Copyright Owner requires an authorised signatory to sign the agreement on their behalf, as well as the Named Author, please email the relevant journal team who will provide you with the appropriate form.

If you still need help, please contact permissions@ioppublishing.org.

Where one or more of the Named Authors are an employee of the US Government and one or more of the Named Authors do not work for the US Government, both an authorised signatory of the US Government (“US Government Signatory”) and one of the other authors should sign the agreement.  In this instance, please email the relevant journal team who will provide you with the appropriate form.

Where all the Named Authors of the Article are employees of the US Government, both an authorised signatory of the US Government (“US Government Signatory”) should sign the agreement and one of the Named Authors.  In this instance, please email the relevant journal team.

Yes. The copyright form is designed to accommodate the needs of Crown employees. IOP takes a licence to publish the content which is subject to Crown copyright. Therefore you should be able to submit the copyright form in the usual way. If there are any particular requirements not covered by the copyright form, please contact permissions@ioppublishing.org.

Only one author needs to sign the copyright form, as authorized agent and on behalf of all the authors in a representative capacity. The submitting author will be deemed to have obtained the consent of all their co-authors to the terms of the copyright form and to submitting the article to the journal.

This FAQ only applies to journals owned by IOP. Copyright forms for journals we publish on behalf of our publishing partners may vary.

Gold open access

If you have submitted the article to a gold open access journal (i.e. a journal that does not offer a subscription option), there will be no need to make a selection as to how you wish the article to be published, as there is no choice. However, you will still need to sign and date the copyright form. Please see our list of gold open access journals.

The Article will be published under a CC BY licence and will be free to read by everyone immediately on publication with no embargo period. By signing the copyright form, you will be responsible for ensuring that the Article Publication Charge is paid in full, unless otherwise agreed in writing with IOP.

Hybrid journals

Hybrid journals offer the option of publishing an article either under the subscription model or under the gold open access model. If you are publishing in a hybrid journal, you will receive a copyright form which allows you to pick which model you wish to publish your article under. In Part 4 of the copyright form, you should select the options that are relevant to your chosen publishing model.

Please familiarize yourself with the terms of the copyright form before submitting it. By submitting the copyright form, you are deemed to have accepted all of its terms.

If you still need help, please email permissions@ioppublishing.org.

It is common for our referees to request that authors make revisions to their articles. It is important that you read each referee report very carefully and address all of the referees’ comments and requests when preparing your revised article. Please be mindful of using inclusive or gender-neutral titles when addressing reviewers.

In addition to submitting your article files, we require a list of all the changes made and a polite point-by-point response to each referee comment (even if you disagree) before we consider the revision. You should copy each referee comment into a separate document and add a response below each comment (and refer to the manuscript line numbers when referring to changes in the main text) to assist editors and referees with checking revisions as quickly as possible.

For each point, take the time to detail exactly what you have changed (quote the exact text before and after) and where it has changed in the manuscript. You should justify your responses, and any additional material should appear in the manuscript. It may only be a new citation and a few new words (or removed words) in a sentence. If you disagree with a referee you should be extremely clear (and polite) about why you think you are right and they are wrong. This may require new evidence, clarification of points in new language, new maths, new experiments, or more references (ideally with the relevant text from that reference extracted in your response, for the convenience of the reviewer).

Sometimes referees contradict each other. It is inadvisable to point out to a referee that their views are invalid just because they contradict the other referee. Try to be conciliatory and, when resolving conflicting reviews, express the view that both reviewers have a point and find some middle ground. Try to address both referees’ comments in some way.

Please make sure that you send your revised article to us, and not simply the original version again. It is also helpful if you supply us with both a clean version of your revised article, and a marked-up version which shows the changes you have made. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can use the “tracked changes” function. If you are using LaTeX you can use the “latexdiff” command.

By observing these guidelines, you will be assisting the referees who voluntarily give up their time to review manuscripts (we recommend that you thank the reviewers for their time and input). If the referee(s) and Editorial Board are not satisfied with the changes to your manuscript, it may still be rejected at this stage.

Each journal has a specific copyright form that authors must sign before an article can be accepted. This will be made available to you by the journal team after article submission.