The leading peer-reviewed journal for digital medicine and health and health care in the internet age. 

Maintenance Notice

Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Who will be affected?

  • Readers: No access to all 28 journals. We recommend accessing our articles via PubMed Central
  • Authors: No access to the submission form or your user account.
  • Reviewers: No access to your user account. Please download manuscripts you are reviewing for offline reading before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
  • Editors: No access to your user account to assign reviewers or make decisions.
  • Copyeditors: No access to user account. Please download manuscripts you are copyediting before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.

Karma Description

*Important:* The Karma Credit program is on hold as of October 31st, 2022. Please read the KB Article on Karma Credits Sunset.


What is Karma points?

Karma Points are a measure for your contributions in the scholarly community.

Karma implies that every good deed will be paid back - and in fact, JMIR Publications has created an innovative system that rewards productive members of the scientific community for contributions such as peer-reviewing or editing for JMIR journals.

Lifetime Karma Points Karma Points don't expire

We award Karma points, and our leaderboard table shows the top contributors in our scientific network, which can be used for Tenure & Promotion applications.

View Karma Points

Karma Credits Collected Karma Credits expire in 18 months

Karma Points collected in the last are your Karma Credits and have a dollar value (1 Karma Credit = USD 1), which can be redeemed for your own submissions, Article Processing Fees and knowledge translation add-ons (TrendMD, promoted tweets etc) at the time you make a payment.

View Karma Credits

User must enter the Karma Credit promo code at the time of the checkout/payment (sorry, no retrospective refunds are possible along the lines of "I did not know I had credits, can I get a refund?" - the answer is always no). The credits have an expiration date (see below), so please make sure to submit your own paper in a timely manner before your credits expire.

Notice: This is in beta. We reserve the right to correct credits caused by bugs, change the number of points awarded for each deed, and to end this program at any time before credits are used. Credits have no cash value.

Deeds as Editors

Activity Points Description
On agreeing to edit a paper 10 10/paper on assignment. Points for making a decision are awarded separately (there are also penalty points for making late decisions). You need to have editorial privileges to be able to take on a paper as editor. Members of the editorial board receive email alerts of submission and can self-assign themselves to the papers they are interested in. Each assignment is awarded with 10 points. If you are interested in joining an EB, check the editorial board page for a link to the application form.
Edited accepted paper (as editor or section editor) 50 50/paper awarded when a paper is accepted. Note that these points are also awarded if the paper was cascaded to a sister journal. Editors get more points for accepted papers than for rejected papers because academic editing and involvement in proofreading of the final galleys require more time than a reject decision.
Bonus Points for Speedy Decisions 10 If (x<7): (7-x)*10 bonus points if initial decision made within x (max 6) weeks of submission AND subsequent decisions within 4 weeks after revision submission (in each round). Points are awarded at the end of the review process. Example: Decision made within 3 weeks: 40 points.
Editor on a paper rejected without completed peer-reviews 10 10/paper awarded when a paper is rejected.
Editor on a rejected paper with completed peer-reviews 35 35/paper awarded when a paper is rejected.
Penalty points if initial editorial decision after fast-track deadline (3 weeks after payment of FTF) or 2 months for non-fast-tracked articles after editor is assigned (-10 per week overdue) -10 -10 per week overdue, up to a max of 10 weeks, or until the initial decision is made, whichever comes first.

Deeds as Reviewers

Activity Points Description
User was suggested by reviewers as reviewer 3 3/each time. This is awarded only once per manuscript. Review completion points are extra and awarded at the end of the review process.
User was suggested by authors as reviewer 3 3/each time. This is awarded only once per manuscript. Review completion points are extra and awarded at the end of the review process.
User was invited to act as reviewer, or self-assignment of an open-peer review paper (JMIR Preprints) 3 3 points, awarded only once per manuscript on date of first being assigned (invited) to review an article, either by the editor, or automatically, or as self-assignment through the open peer-review pathway (preprints.jmir.org). This is independent on whether the user agrees on reviewing the paper, or completes the review. Review completion points are extra and awarded at the end of the review process.
Bonus points: Reviewer was cited in submission (reference-suggested reviewer) 2 2/each time. This is awarded only once per manuscript. Points are awarded for being assigned/nominated as reviewer based on being cited in a submitted paper. Review completion points are extra and awarded at the end of the review process.
For fully reviewing an article (all rounds completed) unless review was rated 1 or 2 by editor 90 90/reviewed article, awarded at the end of the review process. If there are multiple rounds (re-review required), all rounds must be completed. The editor may rate the quality of reviews on a 5-point scale. If a review is rated 1 or 2 (worst ratings, usually for very short/superficial or overly lenient reviews), no points will be awarded.
Bonus points for each review rated 5 by either editor or author or both 5 5/review, awarded at the time the review was rated.
Suggesting additional peer-reviewers 2 Reviewers can nominate additional reviewers on the review form - whether or not they agree to undertake the review themselves. 2/suggestion, up to 2 peer-reviewers, awarded at the time of suggestion.
Penalty points if review agreed on but not delivered or late -15 -15/review, deducted at the review deadline. If the editor makes a decision before the review deadline, the reviewer will not be able to complete the review and therefore is not penalized.

Deeds as Authors

Activity Points Description
Submitted a manuscript (other than letter) 10 10/article, awarded when the manuscript is submitted. Authors will get extra points if and after the paper is accepted. Letters get half the points of full articles. Only authors who have ORCIDs in their JMIR profile will be awarded points.
Submitted a letter 5 5/article, awarded when the manuscript is submitted. Authors will get extra points if and after the paper is accepted. Letters get half the points of full articles. Only authors who have ORCIDs in their JMIR profile will be awarded points.
Manuscript accepted (in addition to submission points) 25 25/article, awarded when the manuscript is accepted for publication. Only authors who have ORCIDs in their JMIR profile will be awarded points.

General Deeds

Activity Points Description
User authenticates ORCID 2 2/One time only, awarded when user first authenticates.

Karma Reversal

JMIR Publications reserves the right to retract Karma that was awarded in error, or if the deed is later assessed to not have been handled dutifully. These instances will be shown on Karma statements as “Karma Reversal”.

How to redeem Karma?

Please check the article in our Knowledge Base for the latest updates on how to redeem Karma Credits.

Read Article

I have just completed one of the deeds above, where are my Karma Points?

Karma Points are calculated and awarded at the end of the day. Please carefully read the description of each deed above, and feel free to contact tech support if you have questions or concerns.

Karma Credits Expiration

Karma Credits will expire 18 months after receiving them.