Peer review

• what is peer review 


  subjecting a piece of research to independent scrutiny by other psychologists working in the field

  they consider the research in terms of; validity, significance and originality

  these experts should be objective and known to the researcher
• aims of peer review 


  . high validity and reliability

  . retain integrity of psychologists

  . provide recommendations abt whether the research should be published to the public or not

  . judge significance of the research in wider context of human behaviour
• Advantages of peer review 


  ✅ protects quality of published research- minimizes fraudulent research so what is published is high quality- preserves the psychologists reputation and increases the credibility
• Disadvantage of peer review 


  ❌anonymity used to criticize rival research- some ppl use this when criticizing their rivals research. This causes competition for fundings of competitive research

  ❌publication bias- when publishers want to publish “headline-grabbing” findings

  ❌ground breaking research may be buried- reviewers will be more critical of research that contradicts their own. Slowing the rate of change in science
• Why do we peer review


  . Prevents dissemination of unwanted claims and deliberate fraud- improves research quality

  . Ensures published research is taken seriously

  . Increases probability of weaknesses or errors- researchers are less objective about their own work
• Eg. ques= explain why conducting a peer review might improve psychological research 


  . High quality which suggested improvements

  . Ensures quality data analysis

  . Research appropriate for publication

  . Research is credible and maintains the researcher’s reputation
• The most common way psychological research is published 


  achaedemic journals