Serve as a reviewer for Advanced Photonics

Reviewing a paper on a topic related to your area of expertise is a valuable contribution to your scientific community. Participating in the peer review process is also a way to stay informed about emerging scientific advances. Advanced Photonics welcomes new reviewers and appreciates the contributions of all who volunteer their time and expertise to review submissions to the journal.

Peer review for Advanced Photonics is single-anonymous: the author’s identity and institution are known to the reviewer, but the reviewer’s identity is not known to the author. Knowing which institution the author is working from allows the reviewer to consider the context of their previous work. Allowing the reviewer to remain anonymous allows forthright analysis and honest evaluation of the work, without concern for potential backlash from the author.

Advanced Photonics is co-published by SPIE and Chinese Laser Press (CLP). Please register yourself as a potential reviewer on the CLP ScholarOne submission site: 
https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/ap.xml 

We thank you for taking the time and offering your talent to this critical aspect of technical publishing.

 

Responsibilities of Reviewers

The anonymous evaluation of a technical paper should follow some generally accepted professional guidelines, and it places the reviewer under certain obligations to the author and the journal.

Before accepting a review assignment, reviewers should disclose conflicts of interest resulting from direct competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors, and avoid cases in which such conflicts preclude an objective evaluation. If you are unsure whether something constitutes a relevant interest, you should seek advice from the journal.

If you are unable to review a manuscript, you should decline the invitation promptly, and you are encouraged to provide suggestions of other potential reviewers who would be qualified to examine the manuscript.

SPIE Policies for Reviewers

Conference Proceedings

Reviewers should be aware that SPIE permits manuscripts based partly or entirely on scientific content previously reported in SPIE proceedings to be submitted to SPIE journals. For more information, please read our full policy on submission of conference proceedings papers. Questions about this policy may be directed to the editorial office at journals@spie.org

Large Language Models

Because web-based large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, Bard, Bing AI, etc., log the prompts they are provided, most uses of these tools in peer review breach confidentiality, which is a violation of the peer review process. The following examples attempt to clarify acceptable and unacceptable uses of LLMs in the peer review process.

Prohibited uses include:

• Uploading the manuscript to a web-based LLM for any reason; and
• Uploading the reviewer’s comments, or any drafts or portions thereof, to a web-based LLM for any reason.

Acceptable uses may include:

• Asking the LLM to summarize the state of the art in a specific subject area to provide background for the reviewer.
• Enterprise or local versions of LLMs (not web-based) that do not save or store input prompts may be used for grammatical and stylistic assistance. Note that if an LLM is used in a review in any way, the reviewer must disclose its use to the Editor in the “Private Comments to Editor” box on the review form.

SPIE recognizes that LLMs are changing rapidly, along with acceptable uses, and will adapt this policy as needed in the future.

Resources for Reviewers

Reviewers are also encouraged to refer to the following resources:

SPIE Guidelines for Ethical Publishing
Reviewers, authors, and editors are expected to read and abide by these ethical publishing guidelines from SPIE.

COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
This is a list of basic principles to which peer reviewers should adhere from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), of which SPIE is a member.

Checklist for Editors, Reviewers, and Authors
This is a checklist to aid in the technical evaluation and preparation of journal papers. It guides reviewers and authors alike through a list of questions that will help them determine the novelty, significance, accuracy, and quality of a paper.

Reviewer Training Program
New and established peer reviewers can take this 3-hour training course, co-hosted by SPIE and Researcher.Life.

Editorials on Peer Review:

• "Four Attributes of an Excellent Peer Review," by Michael T. Eismann: This editorial by a past Optical Engineering editor-in-chief identifies four attributes that are essential to a high-quality peer review.
• "The editorial review process," by Chris Mack: This editorial by a former JM ³ editor-in-chief outlines the review process, including responsibilities for authors, editors, and peer reviewers.

Peer reviewer training course

SPIE has partnered with e-learning platform Researcher.Life to offer a three-hour reviewer training course. This course is primarily aimed at graduate students and early career professionals, but established researchers may also benefit from the curriculum. This interactive course covers the nuts and bolts of how to referee a journal article, as well as guidelines for best practices and ethical responsibilities. Sign up for the course today!