Information for Reviewers

Paper reviewers form a critical role in publications. The quality of a review process sets the quality of the published papers and significantly influences the metrics that are used to evaluate publications, such as impact factor and influence scores. Papers accepted for publications in Transactions on Industry Applications and Industry Applications Magazine should be of the highest quality, and high-quality meaningful reviews are a key part of ensuring this quality.

Some guidelines include:

• Review papers promptly; don’t accept paper reviews if you feel you will not be able to complete them in the requested time and let the Associate Editor know if you become unable to complete a review on time.
• Only accept reviewer invitations for papers where you are knowledgeable and can provide insightful comments.
• Good reviews are specific and unbiased. You should complete reviews with the care that you would like for your own papers.
• Recommending that a paper should be accepted or rejected papers without comments is not acceptable, your decision should be clearly justified. Make the justification for the recommendation clear to the authors (don't write a bland response to the authors and then put specific criticism in the confidential comments to the editors - authors deserve to understand your recommendation)
• If you feel that a paper requires many revisions to become acceptable for publication, you should consider recommending that it should be rejected. Authors are only given 30 days to make revisions. For example, it is not reasonable to recommend a revision that requires the author to build new test equipment or substantially re-write the paper.
• Papers can cover the range from practical application to “academic” research, the absence or presence of either is not a justification to accept or reject a paper. The quality and archival value of the work and its contribution to the field are paramount.