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Preparing your source files for journal articles

The guidelines below provide the essential information you need to prepare your article source files (i.e. the files that you use to create your complete PDF).

Naming your files

Please name all your files according to the following guidelines:

1

Use only characters from the set a to z, A to Z, 0 to 9 and underscore (_)

2

Do not use spaces in file names

3

Include an extension to indicate the file type (for example, .doc, .txt, .eps, etc)

4

Do not use any accented characters (for example, à, ê, ñ, ö, ý, etc) because these can cause difficulties when processing your files.

In addition to the above points, please give figure files names indicating the numbers of the figures they contain; for example, figure1.eps, figure2.tif, figure2a.gif, etc. If a figure file contains a figure with multiple parts, for example figure 2(a) to 2(e), give it a name such as figure2a_2e.jpg, and so forth.

Article text files

TeX and LaTeX

The text of articles may be submitted in any common variant of TeX including LaTeX2e, REVTeX, AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX and plain TeX (including pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX).

A LaTeX2e class file is available to help authors prepare articles for consideration by IOP Journals, should you wish to use it. The files are available in zipped format and Unix tar gzipped format:

ioplatexguidelines

ioplatexguidelines.tar

Note that there is an incompatibility between amsmath.sty and iopart.cls which cannot be completely worked around. If your article relies on commands in amsmath.sty that are not available in iopart.cls, you may wish to consider using a different class file.

Microsoft Word

  • Articles can be prepared using Microsoft Word for Windows or Mac
  • Fonts used should be restricted to the standard font families (Times, Helvetica, Courier or Symbol)
  • If special symbols are needed (e.g. Greek characters, accented characters or mathematical symbols), these should be typed using the appropriate TrueType font. Do not use the Symbol facility on the ‘Insert’ menu as this often results in font conversion problems
  • Equations must be prepared using Microsoft Word Equation Editor or the full commercial MathType package.

Figure files

For articles prepared using LaTeX2e, please make sure that your figures are all supplied as vector Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and linked to your main TeX files using appropriate figure inclusion commands such as \includegraphics. For articles prepared using Word, where possible please also supply all figures as separate graphics files (in addition to being embedded in the text). Our preferred graphics format is EPS. These files can be used directly to give high-quality results, and file sizes are small in comparison with most bitmap forms.

Vector formats

The advantage of vector graphics is that they give the best possible quality at all output resolutions.

In order to get the best possible results, please note the following important points:

  • Fonts used should be restricted to the standard font families (Times, Helvetica, Courier or Symbol)
  • Certain proprietary vector graphics formats such as Origin, Kaleidagraph, Cricket Graph and Gnu Plot should not be sent in their native format. If you do use these applications to create your figures, please export them as EPS.

Archive and compress your files

You may combine all your files (article text, graphics files and, if applicable, the readme.txt file) into a single compressed archive file for ease of handling and to save you time and space. Please archive your files into a zip file. To upload this file type, choose the ‘source files’ designation when you submit. If you have any difficulty archiving or submitting files, please contact us for assistance.

LaTeX template for journal articles

LaTeX guidelines and class file

The text of articles may be submitted in any common variant of TeX including LaTeX2e, REVTeX, AmSTeX, AmSLaTeX and plain TeX (including pdfTeX/pdfLaTeX). A LaTeX2e class file together with full documentation is available to help authors prepare articles for consideration by IOP journals, but it is not essential to format your paper in this way or to use this class file. Any common variant of TeX is acceptable. Note that there is an incompatibility between amsmath.sty and iopart.cls. If your article relies on commands in amsmath.sty that are not available in iopart.cls, you may wish to consider using a different class file.

The files are available in zipped format and Unix tar gzipped format:

ioplatexguidelines

ioplatexguidelines.tar

For guidance on how to upload LaTeX files to ScholarOne, please refer to this author guide.

Need help preparing your LaTeX file?

IOP Editing Services, in partnership with Editage, provides high quality language editing for LaTeX documents, performed by our certified language editors. This service ensures that your research document is error free, concise, and professional. Our editors review your writing, giving you the confidence that you are submitting your very best work. Reap the benefits of producing an academic document in LaTeX, and let our experts handle the challenges.

Our professional LaTeX editors will improve your writing by:

  • Ensuring correct spelling, punctuation and grammar
  • Enhancing academic tone and language
  • Suggesting improvements and clarity
  • Improving flow and structure, while preserving your unique voice
  • Retaining your markup

For more information (including pricing), please visit IOP Editing.

 

 

Supplementary material and data in journal articles

IOP Publishing encourages authors to submit supplementary material at submission that will enhance the online version of a published research article and aid its discoverability. Supplementary material typically includes relevant material that does not form part of the main article, which may include additional data such as computer code, large tables, additional figures or appendices. It may also include multimedia files, such as video clips, animations or sound files. Please note that multimedia files must not include any music. Also note the accessibility considerations for multimedia files detailed above. Supplementary material can include primary datasets where they fall within the file size limits outlined below. If the material is integral to the article then it should be submitted as part of the article rather than as supplementary material.

Supplementary material is not included in the PDF of the article or in any print version and does not form part of the Version of Record. As it is not considered integral to the article it is not subject to peer review and cannot be formally cited. Supplementary material is hosted for free with an article on IOPscience, in the format supplied by the author, and is accessible to the whole readership. Supplementary material is not formatted or edited by our production team, and so proofs are not provided to authors.

Files for supplementary material can be up to a maximum of 10 MB each. Authors wishing to associate larger amounts of supplementary material with their article are recommended make use of a data repository.

Authors should ensure the necessary permissions are obtained before including any third party supplementary material with their submission.

Article structure

You should consider the best way to structure your article before you begin writing. If you wish to use a LaTeX template to format your manuscript (this is optional, you are not obliged to do so) then the files are available in zipped format and Unix tar gzipped format here. Your article should follow the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion system, and usually consist of the following sections:

Title

The title should be concise, informative and meaningful to the whole readership of the journal. It should include key terms, to help make it more discoverable when people search online. Please avoid the use of long systemic names and non-standard or obscure abbreviations, acronyms or symbols.

Authors

Check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to when preparing the PDF version of your manuscript. If double-anonymous then you will need to anonymise your manuscript. If single-anonymous then you need to list all authors’ full names and institutions. Authors in all IOP journals have the option to include names in Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters in addition to the English name. The names will be displayed in parentheses after the English name. During the submission process, we recommend you supply ORCID identifiers for all authors to avoid ambiguity. If an author’s current address is different from the address where the work was carried out, this should be explained in a footnote or acknowledgement. We encourage authors to make specific attributions of contribution and responsibility in the acknowledgements of the article, otherwise all co-authors will be taken to share full responsibility for all of the paper. Authors may wish to use a taxonomy such as CRediT to describe the contributions of each author. More guidance on authorship, including the responsibilities of the corresponding author, can be found here.

Keywords

When you submit an article, you will be asked to supply some keywords relevant to your work. If your article is accepted for publication, we will display these keywords on the published article, and they will be used to index your article, helping to make it more discoverable. When choosing keywords, think about the kinds of terms you would use when searching online for related articles.

Abstract

Your abstract should give readers a brief summary of your article. It should concisely describe the contents of your article, and include key terms (especially in the first two sentences, to increase search engine discoverability). It should be informative, accessible and not only indicate the general aims and scope of the article, but also state the methodology used, main results obtained and conclusions drawn. The abstract should be complete in itself; it should not contain undefined acronyms/abbreviations and no table numbers, figure numbers, references or equations should be referred to. Articles relying on clinical trials should quote the trial registration number at the end of the abstract. The abstract should be suitable for direct inclusion in abstracting services and should not normally be more than 300 words. If you submit an article with an abstract longer than 300 words, we may rescind the manuscript and ask you to re-write it. Some journals ask for abstracts to follow a particular structure. Check the instructions for specific journals to see if you need to submit a structured abstract.

Introduction

This should be concise and describe the nature of the problem under investigation and its background. It should also set your work in the context of previous research, citing relevant references. Introductions should expand on highly specialised terms and abbreviations used in the article to make it accessible for readers.

Method

This section should provide sufficient details of the experiment, simulation, statistical test or analysis carried out to generate the results such that the method can be repeated by another researcher and the results reproduced.

Results

The results section should detail the main findings and outcomes of your study. You should use tables only to improve conciseness or where the information cannot be given satisfactorily in other ways such as histograms or graphs. Colour should not be used in tables, if you need to denote different things in a table then you can use bold or italics etc. providing no coloured text or shading is included. Tables should be numbered serially and referred to in the text by number (table 1, etc.). Each table should have an explanatory caption which should be as concise as possible.

Discussion

This should discuss the significance of the results and compare them with previous work using relevant references.

Conclusion

This section should be used to highlight the novelty and significance of the work, and any plans for future relevant work.

Acknowledgements

Check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to when preparing the PDF version of your manuscript. If double-anonymous then do not include any author names or institution information in the Acknowledgements section of your manuscript. Author names and Funding information should be removed and can be re-added later in the peer review process. For single-anonymous please include an acknowledgements section before the References section in your PDF manuscript.

During the submission process all authors and co-authors are required to disclose any potential conflict(s) of interest when submitting an article (e.g. employment, consulting fees, research contracts, stock ownership, patent licences, honoraria, advisory affiliations, etc). This information should be included in an acknowledgements section at the end of the manuscript (before the references section). All sources of financial support for the project must also be disclosed in the acknowledgements section. The name of the funding agency and the grant number should be given, for example: This work was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through a National Cancer Institute grant R21CA141833. When completing the online submission form, we also ask you to select funders and provide grant numbers in order to help you meet your funder requirements. We encourage authors to use the acknowledgements section of the article to make specific attributions of author contribution and responsibility, otherwise all co-authors will be taken to share full responsibility for all of the paper.

Ethical statement

Some articles will require an ethical statement, particularly those that are reporting research involving humans or animals. This should state if the research was approved by any ethical committee, and which national or international standards were complied with.

References

This section should be used to list all relevant work. More information on referencing. However, check the peer review model for the journal you are submitting to. If double-anonymous then when referring to thesis/unpublished work, please avoid identifying information. You should include non-identifiable information e.g. journal name, year etc...

If you need more information or guidance about any of the above then please contact the journal to which you are submitting.

Measurement Science and Technology: 2016 Reviewer Awards

Reviewer of the Year: Dr Jože Kutin, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Slovenia

Working in fluid flow and pressure metrology—subjects that are also a feature of Measurement Science and Technology—Dr Jože Kutin will accept an invitation to referee if the paper corresponds to his field of expertise, interest and ability to meet the review schedule.

When reviewing, Dr Kutin looks for the paper’s central idea and whether it takes into account already-available findings in the scientific literature. He lays stress upon the correctness of the research methodology and the results, as well as clarity in the presentation.

According to Dr Kutin, refereeing is a form of cooperation between researchers; and, as a reviewer, he feels he is contributing to the quality of presented scientific papers and, consequently, to a positive development of his research field.

Overall, Dr Kutin believes that the current peer-review process is good in journals with editorial advisory boards and structured reviewer databases comprising highly qualified professionals. It is important that papers are reviewed by experts, he says, who are able to provide a critical judgement about the authors’ research contribution.

His advice to first-time reviewers is to bear in mind that remarks should be clearly argued and supported by objective evidence. In this way, authors will be more amenable to making corrections,  increasing the likelihood of valuable discussions.

Outstanding Reviewers:

  • Professor Massimiliano Avalle, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
  • Dr M Bakker, Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands
  • Mr Qingzhong Cai, Beihang University, China
  • Dr Ayan Chakrabarty, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States
  • Dr Valeri Chikovani, Natsional’nij aviatsiynyi universitet, Ukraine
  • Dr Sejong Chun, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Republic of Korea
  • Dr Mark Clarkson, Callaghan Innovation, New Zealand
  • Dr Moises Cywiak, Centro de Investigaciones Opticas, Mexico
  • Professor Paulo de Brito Andre, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal
  • Professor Richard Dewhurst, The University of Manchester, UK
  • Dr G Dimitrakis, University of Nottingham, UK
  • Dr Gerrit Elsinga, Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands
  • Dr Ruimin Feng, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, United States
  • Dr Noriyuki Furuichi, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, National Metrology Institute of Japan, Japan
  • Professor Patrick Gane, Omya AG, Switzerland
  • Professor John Girkin, Durham University, UK
  • Dr Adam Glowacz, Akademia Gorniczo-Hutnicza im Stanislawa Staszica w Krakowie, Poland
  • Dr Gregor Goett, Leibniz Institut fuer Plasmaforschung und Technologie, Germany
  • Dr Rainer Hain, Universitat der Bundeswehr Munchen, Germany
  • Dr Han Haitjema, Mitutoyo Research Centre Europe, Netherlands
  • Dr Peter Harris, National Physical Laboratory, UK
  • Dr Kenichi Hibino, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Ibaraki, Japan
  • Dr Udo Kaatze, Universitaet Goettingen, Germany
  • Mr Hyoungsoo Kim, Princeton University, United States
  • Dr Ludger Koenders, Physikalisch – Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany
  • Professor D Koon, St Lawrence University, United States
  • Dr R Koops, VSL Dutch Metrology Institute, Netherlands
  • Dr Christine Kranz, Universitaet Ulm, Germany
  • Dr Nicolas Lammens, UGent, Belgium
  • Professor Sang Joon Lee, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea
  • Dr Xiang Li, Xidian University, China
  • Dr Xianming Liu, Chongqing University, China
  • Dr Guigen Liu, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States
  • Dr Jiazhen Lu, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
  • Dr Andrew Malcolm, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Singapore
  • Dr A Martinez Olmos, Universidad de Granada, Spain
  • Dr Jimmie Miller, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States
  • Dr M Mohd Noor, The University of New South Wales, Australia
  • Dr Arden Moore, Louisiana Tech University, United States
  • Dr Jody Muelaner, University of Bath, UK
  • Professor Dr Yuichi Murai, Hokkaido University, Japan
  • Dr Tuck Ng, Monash University, Australia
  • Dr Roberto Olmi, CNR – Istituto di Fisica Applicata ‘Nello Carrara’, Italy
  • Professor Chansik Park, Chungbuk National University, Republic of Korea
  • Professor Lihui Peng, Tsinghua University, China
  • Dr Stefan Persijn, VSL, Netherlands
  • Dr Steven Phillips, National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States
  • Dr Primoz Podrzaj, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Dr Igor Prikhodko, Analog Device Inc., United States
  • Professor Agustin Salazar, Universidad del Pais Vasco – Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Spain
  • Dr Silvia María Satorres Martínez, University of Jaen, Spain
  • Dr Frank Scholze, Physikalisch – Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany
  • Dr Liang Shu, Wenzhou University, China
  • Dr Joel Silver, Southwest Sciences Inc., United States
  • Professor Allan Spence, McMaster University, Canada
  • Professor Jo Spronck, Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands
  • Dr Alexandr Stupakov, Institute of Physics ASCR, Czech Republic
  • Dr Yang Su, PLA University of Science and Technology, China
  • Dr Osamu Terashima, Toyama Prefectural University, Japan
  • Dr M van Veghel, VSL, Netherlands
  • Dr Dong Wang, City University of Hong Kong, China
  • Dr Peng Wang, Tianjin University, China
  • Professor Fei Wang, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
  • Mr Xiaoyi Wang, Beijing University of Technology, China
  • Professor Mi Wang, University of Leeds, UK
  • Dr William Wang, University of Sussex, UK
  • Dr Xin Wang, Northwestern University, United States
  • Dr Richard Whalley, Newcastle University, UK
  • Professor Michal Wieczorowski, Poznan University of Technology, Poland
  • Mr B Wieneke, LaVision GmbH, Germany
  • Dr Cheng Xie, Schlumberger Cambridge Research Centre, UK
  • Professor Dr Guan Xu, Jilin University, China
  • Dr Hua Yan, Shenyang University of Technology, China
  • Dr Wang yanqing, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academy of Opto-electronics, China
  • Dr Wuliang Yin, The University of Manchester, UK
  • Professor Bernhard Zagar, Johannes-Kepler-Universitat Linz, Austria
  • Dr Yinan Zhang, Lumentum, United States

Language

All papers should be written in English.

Writing

Articles should be clearly and concisely written, and be accessible to an international audience. It is important to avoid colloquial terms and sayings that may not be widely understood. Short sentences and paragraphs make for easier reading. You should aim for consistency within your article in matters such as hyphenation and spelling. All acronyms and abbreviations should be clearly explained when they first appear in the text. Introduce any ideas that may be unfamiliar to readers early in the paper so that your results can be easily understood. IOP Publishing follows Guidelines on Inclusive Language and Images in Scholarly Communication to ensure that journal articles use bias-free and culturally sensitive communication. We ask authors to please follow these guidelines in their manuscript submissions.

Editing

On completion of the first draft, carefully re-read your paper and make any amendments that will improve the content. When complete, send the paper to colleagues and co-authors, and use their feedback to improve the clarity of the text. When all co-authors are satisfied that the draft is ready to be submitted to a journal, carry out one final spelling and grammar check before submission.

IOP Editing Services, in partnership with Editage, provides editorial support if you need it. We also have support for authors based in China with our China IOP Editing Services.

You can choose from a range of options, including:

  • English-language editing
  • Translation services
  • Plagiarism checking
  • Technical review.

Visit our language editing service to find out more.

Can I submit an article that has been posted as a Preprint?

IOP’s Preprint pre-publication policy allows authors to share a Preprint of their article anywhere at any time, subject to two restrictions.

This means that IOP will consider articles which have already been posted as a Preprint anywhere online, provided that (i) you did not and do not transfer (assign) ownership of its copyright, and (ii) you did not and do not grant an exclusive licence to it.

Additionally, IOP will also consider articles that have been included as a preprint in a thesis or dissertation, provided (i) you did not and do not transfer (assign) ownership of its copyright, and (ii) you did not and do not grant an exclusive licence to it.

Materials Research Express: 2016 Reviewer Awards

Reviewer of the Year: Dr Christopher Jeynes, University of Surrey, UK

Professor Chris Jeynes believes there is no perfect peer review method, but that however it comes we need it to discourage ‘bad’ papers and to improve ‘good’ ones.

He has some candid advice for reviewers (first-time and experienced), authors and editors alike.  He says:

‘Reviewers:  you are the gate-keepers!  You must insist on sound arguments and data, informative titles, accurate abstracts, and fluent and masterly introductions. It is up to the author to persuade you that their research is both valid and valuable.

Authors:  remember that reviewers are not God:  it is good practice to argue your point!  But also remember, it is your job to persuade reviewers—who are hard pressed for time—that your paper is worthy.  You should conduct your own internal review before submitting it, and then welcome tough reviews since it is a paper’s legacy that is guaranteed by careful reviewers.

Editors:  remember that your reviewers are not God, no one has a monopoly on truth just as no one is free from error!  It is your job to oversee the peer review process so that better papers result.  You should encourage creative argument between reviewers and authors!

In all this, of course sound science is essential, as is a good command of the literature.  Reviewing papers that offer a coherent, timely, interesting and important story make it all worthwhile!’

Outstanding Reviewers:

  • Dr Mohd Yusri Abd Rahman, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
  • Dr Rachid Baghdad, Universite Ibn Khaldoun de Tiaret, Algeria
  • Dr Debashis Bandyopadhyay, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, India
  • Dr Rajasekhar Bhimireddi, Indian Institute of Science, India
  • Dr R Bolmaro, Instituto de Física Rosario, CONICET, Argentina
  • Dr Gunther Brunklaus, Westfalische Wilhelms Universitat Munster, Germany
  • Dr Abhijeet Budruk, Intel Corp Hillsboro, United States
  • Professor Gloria Buendia, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela
  • Dr Yanping Cao, Tsinghua University, China
  • Professor Dr Jian Chen, Southeast University, China
  • Dr Houyang Chen, University at Buffalo – SUNY, United States
  • Dr B H Y Corcoran, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Dr Rodolfo Cruz-Silva, Shinshu University, Japan
  • Dr Albert Dato, University of California – Berkeley, United States
  • Professor Kentaro Doi, Osaka University, Japan
  • Dr Yong-Hua Duan, Kunming University of Science and Technology, China
  • Professor Jiyang Fan, Southeast University, China
  • Dr Martin Friak, Institute of Physics of Materials, Germany
  • Dr Fethullah Gunes, Izmir Katip Celebi University, Turkey
  • Professor Masataka Hakamada, Kyoto University, Japan
  • Dr Baoshan Hu, Chongqing University, China
  • Dr Chuan-Lei Jia, China University of Mining and Technology, China
  • Dr Shaohua Jiang, Bayreuth University, Germany
  • Dr Itaru Kamiya, Toyota Technological Institute, Japan
  • Professor Dong-Hau Kuo, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
  • Dr Jianmin Li, Zhejiang University, China
  • Dr Lingyan Liang, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, China
  • Dr Jinyun Liu, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Intelligent Machines Institute, China
  • Professor Chee Liu, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
  • Dr Enzhou Liu, Northwest University, United States
  • Dr Roberto López, UAEM, Mexico
  • Dr Magdalena-Valentina Lungu, National Institute for Research and Development in Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA, Romania
  • Dr Jie Ma, Tongji University, China
  • Dr M Mahdi, University Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
  • Mrs Sarita Mann, Panjab University, India
  • Dr Ambrose Melvin, NCL, India
  • Professor Dionysios Mouzakis, University of Athens, Greece
  • Dr Shaibal Mukherjee, Indian Institute of Technology – Indore, India
  • Dr Ghulam Murtaza, Government College University Lahore, Pakistan
  • Professor Li Nu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
  • Professor Alessio Perrone, Universita del Salento, Italy
  • Professor Kandasamy Prabakar, PUnited Statesn National University, Republic of Korea
  • Dr Kakarla Raghava Reddy, The University of Sydney, Australia
  • Professor Dr Erwan Rauwel, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
  • Professor Guenter Reiss, Universitat Bielefeld, Germany
  • Professor Georgeta Salvan, Technische Universitat Chemnitz, Germany
  • Dr S M Sapuan, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
  • Dr Maheshwar Shrestha, Michigan State University, United States
  • Dr Piyush Solanki, Saurashtra University, India
  • Dr Marin Tadic, Institut za nuklearne nauke Vinca, Serbia
  • Dr L Tang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
  • Dr Joseph P Thomas, Univ. of Waterloo, Canada
  • Dr M V Ulybyshev, University of Regensburg, Germany
  • Dr Guanglei Wang, Arizona State University, United States
  • Dr Hua Wei, Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc, United States
  • Dr Humphrey Yiu, Heriot-Watt University, UK
  • Dr Nadia Zurba, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal

Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter: 2016 Reviewer Awards

Reviewer of the Year: Dr Daniel Errandonea, Universidad de Valencia, Spain

Considering peer review a vital element of scientific professionalism, Dr Daniel Errandonea feels it his duty to contribute his time to refereeing and sees it as a means of maintaining high standards across journals such as Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. In his opinion, peer review not only improves the quality of ‘good science’ but stops ‘bad science’ from being published.

Dr Errandonea gains much satisfaction from knowing that his scientific expertise is valued, and is pleased to have his efforts recognized by the Reviewer of the Year award. He takes the view that he is also an author, and understands that peer review is not a perfect process. He is wary of the possibility that original, pertinent research can be unnecessarily blocked or delayed, and advocates removing authors’ names from manuscripts in the interests of impartiality.

His advice to first-time reviewers is to ask for guidance from more experienced scientists and to follow journal guidelines—and not to take too long to respond.

When refereeing, Dr Errandonea looks for originality, high quality and reliable data, and rigorous science. He also considers the importance of the questions addressed and evaluates the implications of the conclusions. An article on iron oxides at high pressures—Computational searches for iron oxides at high pressures—springs to his mind, due to the authors’ interesting theoretical predictions.

Outstanding Reviewers:

  • Dr Joel Ager, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, United States
  • Dr Andres Aguado, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
  • Professor Vladimir Ajaev, Southern Methodist University, United States
  • Dr Remi Arras, CEMES, France
  • Dr Elias Assmann, Technische Universitat Graz, Austria
  • Dr Remi Avriller, Universite de Bordeaux I, France
  • Professor Petre Badica, Institutul National de Cercetare – Desvoltare pentru Fizica Materialelor, Romania
  • Dr Yaroslaw Bazaliy, University of South Carolina – Columbia, United States
  • Professor Bogdan Bulka, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
  • Dr Giovanni Cantele, CNR, Italy
  • Professor Robert Cava, Princeton University, United States
  • Dr Wei Chen, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • Dr Yaomin Dai, Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States
  • Dr Pierre Dalmas de Reotier, SPSMS, France
  • Dr Fabrizio Dolcini, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
  • Professor Shuai Dong, Southeast University, China
  • Dr Manuel dos Santos Dias, Forschungszentrum Julich Peter Grunberg Institut, Germany
  • Dr Charles Downing, Universite de Strasbourg, France
  • Dr James Drewitt, University of Bristol, UK
  • Dr Chunhui Du, Harvard University, United States
  • Professor Morten Eskildsen, University of Notre Dame, United States
  • Dr Lucia Galisova, Technical University, Slovakia
  • Dr S Gallego, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain
  • Dr D Giuliano, Universita della Calabria, Italy
  • Dr Moshe Goldstein, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  • Dr Igor Golosovsky, Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, NRC “Kurchatov institute”, Russia
  • Dr Quanmin Guo, University of Birmingham, UK
  • Dr Joel Helton, National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States
  • Professor Dr Joachim Hemberger, Universitat zu Koeln, Germany
  • Professor Shinya Hosokawa, Kumamoto University, Japan
  • Professor Qing-Miao Hu, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Institute of Metal Research, China
  • Professor Zi-Xiang Hu, ChongQing University, China
  • Dr Chen Huang, Florida State University, United States
  • Dr Ethirajulu Kannan, Birla Institute of Technology and Science – Goa Campus, India
  • Dr Pranchanan Khuntia, University of Paris-Sud 11, France
  • Mr Joon-Seok Kim, University of Texas at Austin, United States
  • Professor Tsuyoshi Kimura, Osaka University, Japan
  • Dr Tomasz Kostyrko, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
  • Professor Peter Kratzer, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Germany
  • Dr Tom Lancaster, Durham University, UK
  • Dr Jing Li, Penn State Univeristy, United States
  • Dr Xiao Li, University of Texas at Austin, United States
  • Dr Zi Li, California State University Northridge, United States
  • Dr Jianmin Li, Zhejiang University, China
  • Professor Yang Li, Universidad de Puerto Rico – Recinto Universitario de Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
  • Dr Yong Liu, Ames Laboratory, United States
  • Dr Zhe Luo, Purdue University System, United States
  • Mr Eric Yue Ma, Stanford University, United States
  • Dr Roland Mathieu, Uppsala University, Sweden
  • Professor Yoshiaki Nakamura, Osaka University, Japan
  • Dr T Odagaki, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
  • Dr Lin Peng, Shanghai University of Electrical Power, China
  • Professor Julian Poulter, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand
  • Professor Vlad Pribiag, University of Minnesota, United States
  • Dr Matt Probert, University of York, UK
  • Professor Dr Rui Qiao, Virginia Tech, United States
  • Dr Richard Qiu, The Ohio State University, United States
  • Professor Luciano Reatto, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy
  • Dr Clemens Ritter, Institut Laue-Langevin, France
  • Dr Kostas Sarakinos, Linkoping University, Sweden
  • Dr David Scanlon, University College London, UK
  • Dr Matthias Schmidt, University of Bayreuth, Germany
  • Professor Walter Selke, Rheinisch – Westfalische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany
  • Dr Igor Solovyev, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
  • Dr Cheng Song, Tsinghua University, China
  • Professor Yan Song, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
  • Dr Pawel Strak, Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
  • Dr Gloria Subias, CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
  • Dr Mengtao Sun, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China
  • Dr Y Takagaki, Paul-Drude-Institut fuer Festkoerperelektronik, Germany
  • Dr Keisuke Takahashi, Hokkaido University, Japan
  • Dr Naoyuki Tateiwa, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan
  • Dr Trevor Tyson, New Jersey Institute of Technology, United States
  • Professor Shin-ichi Uchida, The University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Mr Bernard van Heck, Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands
  • Dr Taras Verkholyak, Ukraine National Academy of Sciences – Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Ukraine
  • Dr Andrew Walter, Brookhaven National Laboratory, United States
  • Dr Haijing Wang, Chevron Energy Technology Company, USA
  • Dr Yun-Peng Wang, University of Florida, United States
  • Dr Qun Wei, Arizona State University, United States
  • Dr D Wolverson, University of Bath, UK
  • Professor Toshishige Yamada, Santa Clara University, United States
  • Dr Li-Chang Yin, Tohoku University, Japan
  • Dr Kai Zhang, Yale University, United States
  • Professor Xiaoguang Zhang, University of Florida, United States
  • Professor Han Zhang, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • Dr Taishan Zhu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
  • Dr Zhen Zhu, Michigan State University, United States
  • Dr Rok Zitko, Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
  • Dr Elena Zvereva, M V Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

What we look for in your article

If you are an early career researcher you may find our PDF guides (available in both English and Chinese) helpful.

You can also watch our guide on How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper

IOP Publishing (IOP) considers for publication in our journals articles that:

1

Report original science and add significantly to research already published

2

Are of interest to the community

3

Are scientifically rigorous

4

Have sound motivation and purpose

5

Have not been published previously in the peer reviewed literature

6

Are not under consideration for publication in any other peer reviewed journal or book available through a library or by purchase

7

Comply with our preprint pre-publication policy (see below), and

8

Comply with our ethical policy.

It is particularly important for you to consider whether you have enough new results before starting to plan and write a paper for submission to an IOP journal. Reporting incremental steps forward from previous work is usually not sufficient.

Articles based on theses for higher degrees may be submitted. You should take care to ensure that such articles are prepared in the format of a research paper, which is more concise than is appropriate for a thesis.

Articles reporting work that was originally presented at a conference may be submitted, provided these articles do not appear in substantially the same form in a conference proceeding and provided that the journal paper would add some new contribution. Again, you should ensure the format of a research paper is used. The article length should also be appropriate to the content. In case of doubt, please enquire with the relevant journal.

Reports that are not available to the general public are not regarded by IOP as prior publications. Many journals published by IOP consider a range of different article types in addition to regular research papers, including special issue articles, topical reviews, comments and replies. However, please check via the journal homepage that your article is of an acceptable article type and suitable scope before submission.

All articles are judged solely on their scientific merits. Unbiased consideration is given to all manuscripts offered for publication, regardless of whether or not the authors request publication on a gold open access basis and regardless of the race, gender, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, political philosophy, sexual orientation, age or reputation of the authors.

IOP Publishing reserves the right to refuse to publish any content that, in its opinion, could be deemed distasteful or illegal including, but not limited to, libellous, defamatory, offensive or hate speech.

We treat all submitted articles as confidential until they are published and they will only be shared with those reviewers, board members, editors and IOP staff who are directly involved in the peer review of the article. (An exception to this would be if it is felt necessary to share the article with additional external parties in order to investigate a possible breach of the ethical policy.)