7. Writing the Review

Overview

The Reviewer Form

As discussed in detail in Module 2: Peer Review at Optica, each journal in the Optica Publishing Group portfolio has different review criteria. Before writing your review, you should log into the article tracking system (Prism) and re-read the prompts you will be asked to respond to.

Most Optica Publishing Group journal Review Forms include the following items:

  • Manuscript Ratings
    • Appropriateness of Content for the Journal
    • Novelty/Significance/Impact
    • Quality of Technical Content
    • Quality of Presentation
  • Recommendation to Editor
  • Open-Ended Questions
    • Comments to Authors
    • Confidential Comments to Editors

Your primary written review will be entered in the “Comments to Author” section. You may choose to compose your Comments to Authors in a separate program (like Word) and upload them to the system, or to log directly into Prism, where you can save your comments as a draft until you are ready to submit them.

Confidential Comments to the Editors are not required, but there is space to enter them if needed.