Many of us have labored through a manuscript that was poorly written, had insufficient data, lacked appropriate citations, or worse. Why? We do it to serve the community and support the journals we trust, while also keeping abreast of new results in our field. Peer Review is a cornerstone of Applied Optics and other journals published by The Optical Society (OSA).

You may have seen that Peer Review Week occurred from 28 September to 2 October 2015. It started as informal conversations between several organizations (ORCID, ScienceOpen, Sense About Science, and Wiley) as a means to ensure the wider benefits of peer review. During Peer Review Week major publishers and other organizations in the scholarly publishing industry made special efforts to honor those who participate in the peer review process, to promote resources for reviewers, debate pros and cons of alternative forms of peer review, and discuss expectations for the future. One of OSA’s activities during Peer Review Week was to release a new resource for its reviewers—a brochure entitled “Reviewing a Manuscript” which shares best practices for providing a constructive and ethical review of scientific research submitted to OSA Journals.

Peer Review Week was also celebrated on Twitter using the hashtag #peerrevwk15. It was interesting to see some of the posts:

It is obvious that many people feel strongly about the value of peer review. My own belief is that it improves our lives through external evaluation of our work (our publications, our employment record, our research, etc.). Peer review helps determine how worthwhile our efforts really are in the end game.

Peer review is indeed the critical cornerstone for Applied Optics. Our editors and readers rely on it to maintain the journal’s requirements of significance and originality and to effectively evaluate technical quality. Granted, peer review is rarely an easy task. It is time consuming, it is hard, it requires referencing and looking up support material, it is usually under time constraints, and it interrupts our full-time jobs. I recognize this and want to thank all of our reviewers for their dedication to the process. I also want to extend sincere appreciation to all of you who have completed reviews this past year for Applied Optics. Know that you provide an important service for the journal, our authors, and our readers. A small side benefit is that you likely learned something about your field.

OSA has the Outstanding Reviewer Recognition program to honor the top reviewers, but today I want to recognize ALL of our reviewers.

THANK YOU.