Science thrives on constructive and respectful peer review

It is Peer Review Week and celebrations are well under way at IOP Publishing (IOPP), which brings you the Physics World Weekly podcast.

Reviewer feedback to authors plays a crucial role in the peer-review process, boosting the quality of published papers to the benefit of authors and the wider scientific community. But sometimes authors receive very unhelpful or outright rude feedback about their work. These inappropriate comments can shake the confidence of early career researchers, and even dissuade them from pursuing careers in science.

Our guest in this episode is Laura Feetham-Walker, who is reviewer engagement manager at IOPP. She explains how the publisher is raising awareness of the importance of constructive and respectful peer review feedback and how innovations can help to create a positive peer review culture.

As part of the campaign, IOPP asked some leading physicists to recount the worst reviewer comments that they have received – and Feetham-Walker shares some real shockers in the podcast.

• The interview refers to a paper in PeerJ by Nyssa Silbiger​​ and Amber Stubler: “Unprofessional peer reviews disproportionately harm underrepresented groups in STEM“

IOPP has created a video called “Unprofessional peer reviews can harm science” in which leading scientists share inappropriate reviews that they have received.

The publisher also offers a  Peer Review Excellence  training and certification programme, which equips early-career researchers in the physical sciences with the skills to provide constructive feedback.