IOP Publishing celebrates outstanding peer reviewers
26 Mar 2026 by Faye Holst
Outstanding reviewer awards
IOP Publishing (IOPP) has announced the winners of its Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2025, recognising researchers who have delivered exceptional peer review reports over the past year. The awards highlight the essential contribution reviewers make in upholding the quality, integrity and rigour of published research.
This year’s recipients were selected from about 35,000 reviewers who submitted reports for IOPP journals in 2025. Journal editors evaluated nominees based on the volume, timeliness, and quality of their reviews.
The awardees span 74 countries, reflecting the global nature of the peer review community. The largest groups of recipients came from China, the United States, India, Italy and Germany, with China accounting for nearly a third of all awardees. Notably, 10% of this year’s award winners were based in lower middle-income countries or territories, underscoring the breadth and diversity of expertise contributing to IOPP journals.
Laura Feetham-Walker, Reviewer Engagement Manager at IOP Publishing, said: “High quality peer review is essential to maintaining trust in science as it safeguards the quality and integrity of academic work. From all of us at IOP Publishing, I’d like to thank this year’s Outstanding Reviewer Award winners, whose thoughtful and rigorous reviews help advance scientific discovery and strengthen the communities we serve.”
Supporting the wider peer review community, IOPP offers IOPP’s Peer Review Excellence certification programme—the world’s first free peer review training and certification initiative dedicated to the physical sciences. The programme combines digital and in-person learning and offers participants the opportunity to review a manuscript in real time under the guidance of experienced IOPP editors and reviewers. In 2025, more than 1500 reviewers strengthened their peer review skills through this initiative.
Discover the 2025 Outstanding Reviewers here.