Generate professional, verifiable PDF certificates for peer reviewers directly from your OJS dashboard. Multilingual support, QR verification, bulk operations, and more.
Every Reviewer Deserves Recognition
Peer review is the backbone of academic publishing. Reviewers dedicate hours of their expertise — yet most journals offer little more than a thank-you email in return.
What if you could hand every reviewer a professionally designed, verifiable certificate — without leaving your OJS dashboard?
That’s exactly what Review Certificate Pro does. See Certificate Templates
What Is Review Certificate Pro?
Review Certificate Pro is a premium plugin for Open Journal Systems (OJS) 3.3 that automates the entire reviewer certification workflow. Generate multilingual PDF certificates, verify them with QR codes, track downloads, send notification emails — all from a centralized management interface integrated directly into your OJS backend.
No external tools. No manual PDF editing. No spreadsheets.
Screenshot of the management dashboard showing the certificate list with filters, bulk toolbar, and action buttons
Key Features at a Glance
Professionally Designed PDF Certificates
Each certificate is generated as a high-quality A4 landscape PDF with:
- Triple border frame with gold corner ornaments
- Journal logo and ISSN/e-ISSN
- Reviewer’s full name and article title
- Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor signatures
- Unique verification code
- QR code for instant verification
Sample certificate PDF showing the full design with borders, signatures, QR code, and verification code
Multilingual — Not Just English
The plugin generates a separate PDF for each active language in your journal. If your OJS runs Turkish and English, every reviewer gets both versions with a single click.
Want to add Russian, Arabic, Spanish, or any other language? Just create a locale folder — the plugin detects it automatically.
QR Code Verification
Every certificate carries a unique verification code and a scannable QR code. Anyone — reviewers, institutions, funding agencies — can verify a certificate’s authenticity instantly.
The public verification page supports two flows:
- QR scan / direct link: Instant results, no challenge required
- Manual code entry: Protected by a math-based anti-bot challenge
Verification page showing a successful verification result with certificate details
Centralized Management Dashboard
Forget navigating submission by submission. The management dashboard lists every review assignment across your entire journal in one place.
- Filter by issue, by status, or search by reviewer name
- See at a glance: who has a certificate, who has been notified, who has downloaded
- Direct links to each submission’s workflow page
- Pagination for journals with thousands of reviews
Bulk Operations
Select multiple reviewers and:
- Bulk Generate: Create certificates for all selected eligible reviews
- Bulk Notify: Send notification emails to all selected reviewers who haven’t been notified yet
A progress indicator keeps you informed: (3/12)...
Perfect for journals that want to issue certificates retroactively for past volumes.
Email Notifications with Preview
Customize the notification email template with placeholders like {reviewerName}, {articleTitle}, {journalName}, and {verificationCode}.
Before sending, click the preview button to see exactly what the reviewer will receive. If it looks right, send it directly from the preview modal.
Email preview modal showing the populated email with To, Subject, and Body fields
Download Tracking
Know whether a reviewer has actually downloaded their certificate. Download counts are displayed in both the workflow tab and the management dashboard — so you can follow up with reviewers who haven’t collected theirs.
Reviewer Self-Service
Reviewers don’t need to contact the editorial office. Once a certificate is generated, download buttons appear automatically on:
- The reviewer’s completed review page
- The reviewer’s submissions list
They can download their certificate in any available language, at any time.
Retroactive Support
Already published 50 issues before installing the plugin? No problem. Review Certificate Pro reads from the existing OJS review_assignments table. Any completed review for a published article is eligible — regardless of when it was completed.
How It Works
- Install the plugin via OJS Settings > Website > Plugins
- Configure your Editor-in-Chief name, optional Managing Editor, and email template
- Generate certificates from the workflow tab or the management dashboard
- Preview and send notification emails to reviewers
- Reviewers download their certificates from their OJS account
That’s it. Five steps from installation to happy reviewers.
Built for Security
- CSRF protection on all actions
- Role-based authorization (Site Admin, Journal Manager, Sub-Editor)
- Parameterized database queries — no SQL injection
- HMAC-signed verification tokens with expiry
- PDF files stored outside the web root
- Certificate context isolation per journal
What’s Included with Your Purchase
| Lifetime license | Single OJS installation, no recurring fees |
| All future updates | New features and compatibility updates included |
| Installation support | We help you install and configure the plugin |
| Priority email support | Technical issues resolved promptly |
| Customization guidance | Advice on adapting the plugin to your journal’s needs |
Requirements
- OJS 3.3.0.x
- PHP 7.4 or 8.1+
- TCPDF library (included with the plugin — no extra setup)
Get Review Certificate Pro
Ready to give your reviewers the recognition they deserve?
One payment. Lifetime updates. Full support.
Looking for more OJS plugins? Check out our full plugin catalog.
Comments are closed