IOP Publishing has introduced a new referee reward programme as part of the company’s open access policy. The move has been made to help recognise the contribution made by reviewers to the peer-review process. It will also benefit researchers who wish to make the final published version of their work immediately available through gold open access.
Under the new programme, referees will be offered a 10% credit towards the cost of publishing on a gold open access basis when they review an article.
The majority of IOP Publishing’s subscription titles offer a gold open access option, enabling authors to make the final published versions of their research articles free online on payment of an article publication charge. Referee rewards can be used to reduce this publication cost.
IOP Publishing already successfully operates a similar scheme on two of its fully open access titles, New Journal of Physics and Environmental Research Letters. However, this is the first time that the referee reward programme has been made available across the company’s wholly owned and many partner titles.
Nicola Gulley, Editorial Director of IOP Publishing said: “IOP Publishing is working closely with funders, governments and the scientific community on finding practical solutions that will deliver sustainable open access in the short and long term. The new reward programme is one of these many solutions.
“Peer review is an essential part of the scholarly communications process and we are grateful to the scientific community for the contribution they make to this.”
The new programme will come into effect on 1 January 2014 and more details can found on http://iopscience.iop.org/info/page/openaccess.
