Frequently asked questions

Answers to your questions
about ReviewerOne

The questions reviewers, editors, and institutions actually ask us.

Getting started

5 questions
What exactly is ReviewerOne?

ReviewerOne is the infrastructure layer for peer review — the missing tooling, training, recognition, and community that researchers haven't had until now. It is not a journal submission system. It works alongside the editorial systems publishers already use.

Reviewers use it to manage their workload, train, earn verifiable credentials, and connect with other reviewers. Publishers use it to find better-matched, ethically-trained reviewers. See how it fits together.

Who is it for?

Two audiences:

  • For peer reviewers — early-career researchers stepping into peer review and experienced reviewers who've been doing this work without the right support.
  • For journals and publishers — For journals and publishers editorial teams who need a healthier, more diverse, ethically-trained reviewer pool.

To learn more, see Who we're building for and the For Journals page.

Is it free for reviewers?

ReviewerOne is currently free to join and access. This means that our workflow tools, training resources, recognition modules, and community access are currently free for individual reviewers. In the future, we may introduce a minimal registration fee for new reviewers.

I'm not an "early career researcher" — is this still for me?

Absolutely. Senior reviewers use ReviewerOne for the workflow tools, a portable record of their contributions, and to mentor newer reviewers through Mentor Cohorts. The Academy also lets experienced reviewers formalize credentials. See your path.

How long does setup take?

About 5 minutes. Sign up with email or ORCID, pick your primary discipline, and your dashboard is ready. Complete your profile to unlock further access to peer review workflow tools, Reviewer Academy, and other features.

Reviewer Academy

6 questions
When is the Academy launching?

The Academy is in private beta with select cohorts now, with broader access opening in waves. The fastest way in is the early-access waitlist on the Academy page.

What's in the curriculum?

At the moment, the Academy has courses on the following topics:

  • Foundations of peer review
  • The publication process
  • How to get started as a reviewer
  • How to perform a review

We are actively working to create and set up more learning courses and guidance on ethics, integrity, bias, and AI in peer review. We will also introduce webinars, discipline-specific modules and templates. See the full curriculum.

How long does it take to complete a course?

That completely depends on how much time you have. Each module in a course could take an average of 6–10 minutes. Beginner level courses take lesser time to complete.

Are certifications recognized by journals?

Increasingly, yes. Academy-certified reviewers are surfaced first in our publisher console, and our partner journals actively prefer trained reviewers. Certifications are stamped to your ReviewerOne profile and synced to your ORCID record.

Can I mentor others through the Academy?

Yes, once you reach L3 (Expert) level. Mentor cohorts pair senior reviewers with novice reviewers. Mentoring programs are structured, time-bound, and recognized on your profile. Read about Mentor Forums.

AI Review Assistant

7 questions
Does the AI write the review for me?

No. That would be unethical. The Reviewer Assistant uses AI to check citations, ethics statements, plagiarism, retractions, and scope match everything that will reduce the burden of manual checks on you. It then surfaces findings. You lead the evaluation as a reviewer. The AI only assists.

What does it actually check?

Six structured scans run before your first read: plagiarism, research integrity, scope, novelty, ethical approval, and reference checks. Each one is line-linked to the manuscript and feeds into a structured peer-review report. See the full list.

How accurate is it?

Reference verification and retraction lookups are near-deterministic. We cross-check against Crossref, PubMed, and ORCID. Plagiarism uses validated similarity scoring. Methodological flags surface issues. The AI will never make a final judgement on your behalf the reviewer decides.

Will it flag false positives?

Yes, occasionally — which is why findings always link back to the source paragraph so you can verify in one click. We track precision per check and tune accordingly. False positives are easier to dismiss than false negatives are to catch.

Does it work for ESL reviewers?

Yes — this is one of its strongest use-cases. The assistant flags technical and formatting issues so your scientific expertise comes through without language barriers.

Can I turn off specific checks?

Yes. Each check is independently configurable from your reviewer settings. Journals can also set defaults for invitations that go through their console.

How long does a scan take?

Currently this takes a few minutes. We are actively working to bring it down to about 2 minutes per manuscript.

Recognition

5 questions
How does ORCID syncing work?

Connect your ORCID from your account settings. Every verified review on ReviewerOne is then automatically pushed as a peer-review entry on your ORCID record.

Are reviews anonymous? What gets recorded?

The review itself stays confidential. What gets recorded publicly is the fact that you completed a verified review for a specific journal on a specific date — never the review content or the manuscript identity. You control whether reviewer-name disclosure is enabled per journal.

Can past reviews be added retroactively?

If the journal participates in our verification network, yes your existing reviewer history can be imported with the journal's confirmation. If not, the record starts from the date you join.

What's the "integrity score"?

A composite of timeliness, completeness against the structured report, editor-rated usefulness, and adherence to ethics standards. It's never a "ranking" — it's a private quality signal that editors see when shortlisting. You can see exactly what feeds it from your profile settings.

Community

4 questions
How does the Community work?

Subject-specific forums, mentor cohorts, and live AMAs with editors. It's moderated — by reviewers and editors, not by AI — and signal-density is the explicit design goal. See how it works.

Are discussions public?

No. The community is members-only. Reviewers need to be ReviewerOne-verified to read or post.

Can I attend AMAs without joining?

Most AMAs are members-only, but a handful per year are open and posted on the blog or our LinkedIn page.

For journals and publishers

6 questions
How does this integrate with our submission system?

Two options: API integration with major editorial systems (Editorial Manager, ScholarOne, eJournalPress, OJS, etc.) for in-context reviewer matching, or standalone use through our editorial console Book a demo to see how the integration would work on your system.

How does reviewer matching work?

Manuscript keywords are extracted, then cross-referenced against PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and ORCID to score candidate reviewers. Each card shows relevance, publication and citation data, past review activity, conflicts of interest, retraction history, availability, and subject-match.

What about reviewer pricing for journals?

Journal pricing is volume-based — submissions processed per year. Society journals and small open-access publishers get tiered pricing. We share full pricing on the demo call once we know your scale.

Do you share reviewer pools across publishers?

The reviewer network is shared, but every reviewer controls journal-specific availability and Conflict-of-Interest flags. Reviewer activity for a specific journal stays private to that journal.

How quickly can we go live?

Standalone use: same week. API integration with an existing editorial system: typically 4–8 weeks depending on the platform and your internal review cycle.

Will reviewers feel monitored?

No, and this is a design priority. Reviewer profiles are reviewer-owned. Journals see what reviewers choose to share. The system isn't a surveillance tool — it's a portable identity for the reviewer.

Privacy and data

5 questions
Do you sell reviewer data?

No. Reviewer data is not for sale, full stop. This is a foundational commitment, not a marketing line — it's the only sustainable way to build the trust the system needs.

What data do you collect?

What you provide (name, email, ORCID, discipline), your review activity (timestamps, completion status, journal — never review content for analytics), and Academy progress. Full breakdown in our privacy policy.

Is review content used to train AI?

No. Manuscript and review content stay confidential and are not used to train any AI model — ours or anyone else's. The AI Review Assistant runs on the manuscript you're actively reviewing, in your session, and the data isn't retained beyond that.

Can I delete my account and data?

Yes — one-click from your settings. We retain only what we're legally required to (e.g., verified-review references for audit), and even those are anonymized after 5 years.

Where is reviewer data stored?

Regional data residency: EU reviewers' data stays in EU regions, India in IN, etc. We meet GDPR requirements as the baseline for all reviewers globally.

Still have questions?

Reach out to us with your query.

We typically respond to each query within one business day.