Archives: Questions

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.

(each a ‘Journal’ and together the ‘Journals’).

*For these titles, this policy applies only to articles submitted after a certain date. Please see the Japan Society of Applied Physics page for full information.

For further information, please refer to IOP’s FAQs.

See here for CHORUS requirements, or please refer to IOP’s open access page.

See here for information on the REF 2029 Open Access Policy.

IOP reserves the right to issue take-down notices to anyone or any site which infringes this policy or to take other action as it considers to be appropriate.

In the case of any discrepancy between the definitions contained on this page and those on the Copyright Form, the definitions on the Copyright Form will prevail.

We are always looking for ways to improve our service to authors and we offer an opportunity for you to complete a short survey about your experience of submitting to an IOP Publishing journal. A link to this survey is included in both our acceptance and rejection letters.

All of your feedback is very valuable to us, and we would like to thank you in advance for your help.

You have the right to appeal against a rejection from our journals. An appeal is an extension of the peer review process and the same ethical standards apply, so you should not submit an appeal whilst your article is under consideration by another publication. Please see our ethical policy for journals for further information.

To lodge an appeal you should contact the journal e-mail address, outlining your case for reconsideration. To be considered, appeals must directly address the reason(s) given for the initial rejection decision. If reviewer reports were included with the decision letter, then these criticisms must be responded to in the appeal. Appeals that do not address reviewers’ criticisms, are dismissive of the reviewer comments, or contain offensive language will not be considered.

Appeals that meet the requirements above are sent to a member of the journal’s Editorial Board for consideration. If successful, an appeal can lead to the article’s re-entering the peer review process. The article may ultimately be published following any revisions deemed necessary by the Editorial Board. You should not submit a revised version of your article until the appeal process is complete. If the appeal is rejected, then the original rejection decision is upheld and no further consideration of that article is possible.

Please note, we must receive your appeal within four weeks of the original decision, otherwise we are unable to consider it.

Each Named Author of an article published on a subscription basis may post the abstract at any time after publication of the Final Published Version, on any repository, Scientific Social Network or third party website (in all cases ONLY where non-commercial) but not on the websites of other publishers, provided in all cases that the Named Author includes a link via DOI to the abstract page of the Final Published Version on IOPscience. No changes may be made to the abstract. Any links, brands, trademarks or copyright notices embedded in the abstract must remain intact.

The Named Authors are granted certain limited rights to use the Final Published Version as expressly set out in the signed Copyright Form for the article. No use should be made of the Final Published Version except for those rights expressly granted to the Named Authors.

The Named Authors may NOT post, share or deposit the Final Published Version or Version of Record of articles published under the subscription model online in any circumstances (this includes not posting it on their Personal Websites, not posting it to sites such as ResearchGate, Mendeley and Academia.edu, and not posting it to any other websites or repositories).

Third parties/subscribers cannot make the Final Published Version publicly available, or deposit it anywhere, post it online or share it with anyone who is not a subscriber to the particular Journal.

The Final Published Version and the Version of Record of articles published under the subscription model are fully protected by copyright and must only be published online by IOP or its licensors.

You may indicate that the CC BY-NC-ND licence applies after the Embargo Period by including the following wording on the Accepted Manuscript, “This Accepted Manuscript is available for reuse under a CC BY-NC-ND licence after the 12 month embargo period provided that all the terms of the licence are adhered to” (unless there is a cover sheet applied to it by IOP which already states this).

Once the Final Published Version has been published on IOPscience, in all cases where the Accepted Manuscript has been posted, the Named Authors must add citation details and a link from your posting of the Accepted Manuscript to the Version of Record via DOI.  IOP requires that the Named Authors include the Statement of Provenance as set out in the ‘Definitions’ section below.

The Named Authors may not post the Accepted Manuscript in any repositories, Scientific Social Networks or websites that automatically apply an open access licence to the article granting reuse rights under the terms of the repository, Scientific Social Network or website (unless it applies a CC BY-NC-ND licence, in which case it may only be posted under that licence after the Embargo Period).

For clarity, IOP only currently applies the CC BY-NC-ND licence to the Accepted Manuscripts of articles published in the Journals which apply to this policy (and this only applies after the Embargo Period).

Authors are permitted to share the Author’s Original/Preprint of their article anywhere at any time. Please refer to our Preprint Policy for further information.