Peer review

• What is a peer review?

  The practice of using independent experts to assess the quality and validity of scientific research and academic reports
• What are the three main aims of peer review?

  1. To allocate research funding

  2. To validate the quality and relevance of research

  3. To suggest amendments or improvements
• What is meant by allocation of research funding?

  Research is paid for by various government and charitable bodies (e.g. Medical Research Council) - these organisations have a duty to spend money responsibly and on research projects that are worthwhile
• What is meant by to validate the quality and relevance of research?

  All elements of research are assessed for quality and accuracy - formulation of hypotheses, methodology chosen, statistical tests used and the conclusions drawn
• What is meant by suggesting amendments or improvements?

  Reviews may suggest minor revisions of the work and thereby improve the work - in extreme cases they may suggest the work is inappropriate for publication and should be withdrawn
• What is a strength of the peer review process?

  - Ensures research is high quality -> helps to prevent publication of irrelevant findings, unwarranted claims, unacceptable interpretations and fraud

  - Ensures published research is taken seriously
• Why might anonymity cause an issue in peer review?

  Reviewers may use their anonymity as a way of criticising rival researcher who may have crossed them in the past
• What is publication bias?

  Tendency for editors of journals to publish 'headline grabbing' findings or positive results and ignoring research which does not meet this criteria
• Why might the peer review process ignore ground-breaking research?

  In order to suppress opposition to mainstream theories to maintain the status quo and this may slow down the rate of change with a particular scientific discipline