Scholarly peer review#Failures

The first record of an editorial pre-publication peer-review is from 1665 by Henry Oldenburg, the founding editor of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society at the Royal Society of London.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZ1axrolCpkC&pg=PA220|title=Rescuing Science from Politics|first=Rena |last=Steinzor |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-521-85520-4|page=304}}Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine [http://books.nap.edu/readingroom/books/obas/contents/publication.html On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research] National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 1995, 82 pages, {{ISBN|0309119707}}{{page needed|date=July 2022}}{{Cite web |date=2004-07-20 |title=The Origin of the Scientific Journal and the Process of Peer Review |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/399/399we23.htm |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=House of Commons |publisher=The Publishers Association}}

The first peer-reviewed publication might have been the Medical Essays and Observations published by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1731. The present-day peer-review system evolved from this 18th-century process,{{cite journal | vauthors = Benos DJ, Bashari E, Chaves JM, Gaggar A, Kapoor N, LaFrance M, Mans R, Mayhew D, McGowan S, Polter A, Qadri Y, Sarfare S, Schultz K, Splittgerber R, Stephenson J, Tower C, Walton RG, Zotov A | title = The ups and downs of peer review | journal = Advances in Physiology Education | volume = 31 | issue = 2 | pages = 145–152 [145]| date = June 2007 | pmid = 17562902 | doi = 10.1152/advan.00104.2006 | s2cid = 296058 | quote = Scientific peer review has been defined as the evaluation of research findings for competence, significance, and originality by qualified experts. These peers act as sentinels on the road of scientific discovery and publication. }} began to involve external reviewers in the mid-19th-century,{{Cite journal|url = http://www.biotechniques.com/BiotechniquesJournal/2015/January/From-the-Editor/biotechniques-356227.html |title=Benefits and Burdens of Peer-Review |last=Blow |first = Nathan S. |date=January 2015 |journal=BioTechniques |page=5 |volume=58 |issue=1 |doi=10.2144/000114242|doi-access=free }} and did not become commonplace until the mid-20th-century.{{cite journal|title=Benefits and Burdens of Peer-Review (editorial)|journal=BioTechniques |page=5 |date=January 2015 |volume=58 |issue=1|doi=10.2144/000114242|doi-access=free }}

Peer review became a touchstone of the scientific method, but until the end of the 19th century was often performed directly by an editor-in-chief or editorial committee.{{cite journal |last1=Pontille |first1=David |last2=Torny |first2=Didier |title=From manuscript evaluation to article valuation: the changing technologies of journal peer review |journal=Human Studies |volume=38 |pages=57–79 |year=2014 |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/CSI-ENSMP/hal-01143310v1|doi=10.1007/s10746-014-9335-z|s2cid=53387591 }}{{cite journal | vauthors = Csiszar A | title = Peer review: Troubled from the start | journal = Nature | volume = 532 | issue = 7599 | pages = 306–308 | date = April 2016 | pmid = 27111616 | doi = 10.1038/532306a | bibcode = 2016Natur.532..306C | s2cid = 4458585 | doi-access = free }} Editors of scientific journals at that time made publication decisions without seeking outside input, i.e. an external panel of reviewers, giving established authors latitude in their journalistic discretion. For example, Albert Einstein's four revolutionary Annus Mirabilis papers in the 1905 issue of Annalen der Physik were evaluated by the journal's editor-in-chief, Max Planck, and its co-editor, Wilhelm Wien, both future Nobel prize winners and together experts on the topics of these papers. On a much later occasion, Einstein was severely critical of the external review process, saying that he had not authorized the editor in chief to show his manuscript "to specialists before it is printed", and informing him that he would "publish the paper elsewhere"{{snd}}which he did, with substantial modifications.{{cite journal |last=Kennefick |first=Daniel |title=Einstein versus the Physical Review |journal=Physics Today |volume=58 |issue=9 |pages=43–48 |date=September 2005|doi=10.1063/1.2117822|bibcode= 2005PhT....58i..43K |s2cid=122132354 |doi-access=free }}{{cite web |last1=Basen |first1=Ira |title=The peer-review process is in need of some scrutiny |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-peer-review-process-is-in-need-of-some-scrutiny/ |website=The Globe and Mail |access-date=2024-03-29 |date=2023-05-19 |quote=Einstein replied that he had not authorized anyone to review the paper before publication.}}

While some medical journals started to systematically appoint external reviewers, it is only since the middle of the 20th century that this practice has spread widely and that external reviewers have been given some visibility within academic journals, including being thanked by authors and editors.{{Cite journal|last=Baldwin|first=Melinda|date=2018-09-01|title=Scientific Autonomy, Public Accountability, and the Rise of "Peer Review" in the Cold War United States|journal=Isis|volume=109|issue=3|pages=538–558|doi=10.1086/700070|s2cid=150175444|issn=0021-1753}} A 2003 editorial in Nature stated that, in the early 20th century, "the burden of proof was generally on the opponents rather than the proponents of new ideas."{{cite journal | title = Coping with peer rejection | journal = Nature | volume = 425 |issue=6959 |page=645 |date=October 2003 |pmid=14562060 | doi = 10.1038/425645a |bibcode=2003Natur.425..645. | s2cid = 4380827 |doi-access=free }} Nature itself instituted formal peer review only in 1967.{{cite book|last1=Tan|first1=Meng H.|editor1-last=Markovac|editor1-first=Jasna|editor2-last=Kleinman|editor2-first=Molly|editor3-last=Englesbe|editor3-first=Michael|title=Medical and Scientific Publishing: Author, Editor, and Reviewer Perspectives|date=2018|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-809969-8|pages=55–68|chapter=Chapter 7: Peer review – Past, Present and Future}} Journals such as Science and the American Journal of Medicine increasingly relied on external reviewers in the 1950s and 1960s, in part to reduce the editorial workload. In the 20th century, peer review also became common for science funding allocations. This process appears to have developed independently from that of editorial peer review.{{rp|221}}

Gaudet{{cite journal |first=Joanne |last=Gaudet |hdl=10393/31319 |title=Investigating journal peer review as scientific object of study:unabridged version – Part I |journal=UO Research |date=2014-07-16 }}{{self-published inline|date=January 2016}} provides a social science view of the history of peer review carefully tending to what is under investigation, here peer review, and not only looking at superficial or self-evident commonalities among inquisition, censorship, and journal peer review. It builds on historical research by Gould,{{cite book |last=Gould |first=T.P.H. |year=2012 |title=Do We Still Need Peer Review? |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-8574-5}}{{page needed|date=November 2018}} Biagioli,{{cite journal |last=Biagioli |first=M. |title=From book censorship to academic peer review |journal=Emergences |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=11–45 |date=2002 |doi=10.1080/1045722022000003435|s2cid=143577949 }} Spier, and Rip.{{cite journal |last=Rip |first=A. |title=Commentary: Peer review is alive and well in the United States |journal=Science, Technology, & Human Values |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=82–86 |date=1985 |doi=10.1177/016224398501000310|s2cid=144738593 }} The first Peer Review Congress met in 1989.{{cite journal | vauthors = Rennie D, Flanagin A | title = Three Decades of Peer Review Congresses | journal = JAMA | volume = 319 | issue = 4 | pages = 350–353 | date = January 2018 | pmid = 29362775 | doi = 10.1001/jama.2017.20606 | doi-access = free }} Over time, the fraction of papers devoted to peer review has steadily declined, suggesting that as a field of sociological study, it has been replaced by more systematic studies of bias and errors. In parallel with "common experience" definitions based on the study of peer review as a "pre-constructed process", some social scientists have looked at peer review without considering it as pre-constructed. Hirschauer proposed that journal peer review can be understood as reciprocal accountability of judgements among peers.{{cite journal |last=Hirschauer |first=S. |title=Editorial judgements: A praxeology of 'voting' in peer review |journal=Social Studies of Science |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=71–103 |date=2010 |doi=10.1177/0306312709335405 |s2cid=145222636 }} Gaudet proposed that journal peer review could be understood as a social form of boundary judgement{{snd}}determining what can be considered as scientific (or not) set against an overarching knowledge system, and following predecessor forms of inquisition and censorship.{{self-published inline|date=January 2016}}

Pragmatically, peer review refers to the work done during the screening of submitted manuscripts. This process encourages authors to meet the accepted standards of their discipline and reduces the dissemination of irrelevant findings, unwarranted claims, unacceptable interpretations, and personal views. Publications that have not undergone peer review are likely to be regarded with suspicion by academic scholars and professionals.{{Citation needed|date=February 2015}} Non-peer-reviewed work does not contribute, or contributes less, to the academic credit of a scholar (such as the h-index), although this heavily depends on the field.

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|quote=[P]eer review in its ideal form is both an act of altruism and an act of investment in the continuation of the scholarly enterprise by our colleagues. That is why it is so important to engage in thoughtful peer review as a scholar, and that is why it is important to do it well, acting not as a gatekeeper, but as a fellow contributor in the creation of knowledge. Collective wisdom.

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|source=Anna Marie Roos, editor-in-chief of Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 2022{{cite journal |first=A. M. |last=Roos |title=Publish and flourish, or the collective wisdom of peer review |journal=Notes and Records |volume=76 |issue=3 |year=2022 |pages=335–6 |doi=10.1098/rsnr.2022.0022 |pmid=35974900 |pmc=9364700 }}}}

It is difficult and time-consuming for authors and researchers, whether individually or in a team, to spot and provide feedback on every mistake or flaw in a complicated piece of work.{{Cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=Tj |last2=Irvine |first2=Lesley |last3=Thomas |first3=Glen |date=2024-05-16 |title=Learning the art of Scholarly Peer-Review: Insights from the Communication Discipline |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X241254568 |journal=Media International Australia |language=en |doi=10.1177/1329878X241254568 |issn=1329-878X}} This is not necessarily a reflection on those concerned, but because with a new and perhaps eclectic subject, an opportunity for improvement may be more obvious to someone with special expertise or who simply looks at it with a fresh eye. Therefore, showing work to others increases the probability that weaknesses will be identified and improved. For both grant-funding and publication in a scholarly journal, it is also normally a requirement that the subject is both novel and substantial.{{cite web |url=http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/doctrine/mgmt/briefing_papers/peer_review_panels.pdf |title=Peer Review Panels – Purpose and Process |publisher=USDA Forest Service |date=February 6, 2006 |access-date=October 4, 2010}}{{cite journal |author=Sims Gerald K. |year=1989 |quote=The review process was double-blind to provide anonymity for both authors and reviewers, but was otherwise handled in a fashion similar to that used by scientific journals |title=Student Peer Review in the Classroom: A Teaching and Grading Tool |url= https://www.agronomy.org/files/publications/jnrlse/pdfs/jnr018/018-02-0105.pdf |journal=Journal of Agronomic Education |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=105–108 |doi=10.2134/jae1989.0105 }}

The decision whether or not to publish a scholarly article, or what should be modified before publication, ultimately lies with the publisher (editor-in-chief or the editorial board) to which the manuscript has been submitted. Similarly, the decision whether or not to fund a proposed project rests with an official of the funding agency. These individuals usually refer to the opinion of one or more reviewers in making their decision. This is primarily for three reasons:{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

• Workload. A small group of editors/assessors cannot devote sufficient time to each of the many articles submitted to many journals.
• Miscellany of ideas. Were the editor/assessor to judge all submitted material themselves, approved material would solely reflect their opinion.
• Limited expertise. An editor/assessor cannot be expected to be sufficiently expert in all areas covered by a single journal or funding agency to adequately judge all submitted material.

Reviewers are often anonymous and independent. However, some reviewers may choose to waive their anonymity, and in other limited circumstances, such as the examination of a formal complaint against the referee, or a court order, the reviewer's identity may have to be disclosed. Anonymity may be unilateral or reciprocal (single- or double-blinded reviewing).{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

Since reviewers are normally selected from experts in the fields discussed in the article, the process of peer review helps to keep some invalid or unsubstantiated claims out of the body of published research and knowledge. Scholars will read published articles outside their limited area of detailed expertise, and then rely, to some degree, on the peer-review process to have provided reliable and credible research that they can build upon for subsequent or related research. Significant scandal ensues when an author is found to have falsified the research included in an article, as other scholars, and the field of study itself, may have relied upon the invalid research.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

For US universities, peer reviewing of books before publication is a requirement for full membership of the Association of American University Presses.{{cite web |title=AAUP Membership Benefits and Eligibility |publisher=Association of American University Presses |url=http://www.aaupnet.org/aaup-members/becoming-a-member/eligibility-requirements |access-date=August 3, 2016 |archive-date=August 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820112756/http://www.aaupnet.org/aaup-members/becoming-a-member/eligibility-requirements |url-status=dead }}

In the case of proposed publications, the publisher (editor-in-chief or the editorial board, often with assistance of corresponding or associate editors) sends advance copies of an author's work or ideas to researchers or scholars who are experts in the field (known as "referees" or "reviewers"). Communication is nowadays normally by e-mail or through a web-based manuscript processing system such as ScholarOne, Scholastica, or Open Journal Systems. Depending on the field of study and on the specific journal, there are usually one to three referees for a given article. For example, Springer states that there are two or three reviewers per article.{{Cite web|url=https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/editors/peer-review/32888|title=Peer Review|website=www.springer.com|access-date=2018-04-17}}

The peer-review process involves three steps:{{Cite news|url=https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-peer-review-27797|title=Explainer: what is peer review?|last=Spicer|first=Andre|work=The Conversation|access-date=2018-04-17}}

An editor evaluates the manuscript to judge whether the paper will be passed on to journal referees. At this phase many articles receive a "desk reject", that is, the editor chooses not to pass along the article. The authors may or may not receive a letter of explanation.

Desk rejection is intended to be a streamlined process so that editors may move past nonviable manuscripts quickly and provide authors with the opportunity to pursue a more suitable journal. For example, the European Accounting Review editors subject each manuscript to three questions to decide whether a manuscript moves forward to referees: 1) Is the article a fit for the journal's aims and scope, 2) is the paper content (e.g. literature review, methods, conclusions) sufficient and does the paper make a worthwhile contribution to the larger body of literature, and 3) does it follow format and technical specifications? If "no" to any of these, the manuscript receives a desk rejection.{{Cite journal|last=Stolowy|first=Herve|title=Letter from the Editor: Why Are Papers Desk Rejected at European Accounting Review|journal=European Accounting Review|volume=26|issue=3|pages=411–418|doi=10.1080/09638180.2017.1347360|year=2017|s2cid=157531858|doi-access=free}}

Desk rejection rates vary by journal. For example, in 2017 researchers at the World Bank compiled rejection rates of several global economics journals; the desk rejection rate ranged from 21% (Economic Lacea) to 66% (Journal of Development Economics).{{Cite web|url=http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/dev4peace/state-development-journals-2017-quality-acceptance-rates-and-review-times|title=The State of Development Journals 2017: Quality, Acceptance Rates, and Review Times|last=McKenzie|first=David|date=2017-02-21|website=Impact Evaluations|access-date=2018-04-17|archive-date=April 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418092846/http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/dev4peace/state-development-journals-2017-quality-acceptance-rates-and-review-times|url-status=dead}} The American Psychological Association publishes rejection rates for several major publications in the field, and although they do not specify whether the rejection is pre- or post- desk evaluation, their figures in 2016 ranged from a low of 49% to a high of 90%.{{Cite journal|date=2017|title=Summary Report of Journal Operations, 2016|journal=American Psychologist|volume=72|issue=5|pages=499–500|doi=10.1037/amp0000172|pmid=28726464|s2cid=1271000}}

If the paper is not desk rejected, the editors send the manuscript to the referees, who are chosen for their expertise and distance from the authors. At this point, referees may reject, accept without changes (rare){{Cite web|date=2013-04-11|title=Peer review process and editorial decision making at journals|url=https://www.editage.com/insights/peer-review-process-and-editorial-decision-making-at-journals|website=Editage Insights}} or instruct the authors to revise and resubmit.

Reasons vary for acceptance of an article by editors, but Elsevier published an article where three editors weigh in on factors that drive article acceptance. These factors include whether the manuscript: delivers "new insight into an important issue", will be useful to practitioners, advances or proposes a new theory, raises new questions, has appropriate methods and conclusion, presents a good argument based on the literature, and tells a good story. One editor notes that he likes papers that he "wished he'd done" himself.{{Cite news|url=https://www.elsevier.com/connect/8-reasons-i-accepted-your-article|title=8 reasons I accepted your article|last=Zwaaf|first=Elizabeth |date=15 January 2013 |work=Elsevier Connect|access-date=2018-04-17}}

These referees each return an evaluation of the work to the editor, noting weaknesses or problems along with suggestions for improvement. Typically, most of the referees' comments are eventually seen by the author, though a referee can also send 'for your eyes only' comments to the publisher; scientific journals observe this convention almost universally. The editor then evaluates the referees' comments, her or his own opinion of the manuscript before passing a decision back to the author(s), usually with the referees' comments.{{cite journal | vauthors = Benos DJ, Kirk KL, Hall JE | title = How to review a paper | journal = Advances in Physiology Education | volume = 27 | issue = 1–4 | pages = 47–52 | date = December 2003 | pmid = 12760840 | doi = 10.1152/advan.00057.2002 | s2cid = 35635960 }}

Referees' evaluations usually include an explicit recommendation of what to do with the manuscript or proposal, often chosen from options provided by the journal or funding agency. For example, Nature recommends four courses of action:{{Cite web|url=https://www.nature.com/authors/policies/peer_review.html|title=Peer-review policy : authors & referees @ npg|website=www.nature.com|access-date=2018-04-17}}

• to unconditionally accept the manuscript or the proposal,
• to accept it in the event that its authors improve it in certain ways
• to reject it, but encourage revision and invite re-submission
• to reject it outright.

During this process, the role of the referees is advisory. The editor(s) is typically under no obligation to accept the opinions of the referees,{{cite web|url=http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/|title=Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly work in Medical Journals.|publisher=ICMJE|date=2014-12-16|access-date=2015-06-26}} though he or she will most often do so. Furthermore, the referees in scientific publication do not act as a group, do not communicate with each other, and typically are not aware of each other's identities or evaluations. Proponents argue that if the reviewers of a paper are unknown to each other, the editor(s) can more easily verify the objectivity of the reviews. There is usually no requirement that the referees achieve consensus, with the decision instead often made by the editor(s) based on her best judgement of the arguments.

In situations where multiple referees disagree substantially about the quality of a work, there are a number of strategies for reaching a decision. The paper may be rejected outright, or the editor may choose which reviewer's point the authors should address.{{Cite news|url=https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/what-should-editors-do-when-referees-disagree/|title=What should editors do when referees disagree?|date=2014-09-02|work=Dynamic Ecology|access-date=2018-04-17}} When a publisher receives very positive and very negative reviews for the same manuscript, the editor will often solicit one or more additional reviews as a tie-breaker. As another strategy in the case of ties, the publisher may invite authors to reply to a referee's criticisms and permit a compelling rebuttal to break the tie. If a publisher does not feel confident to weigh the persuasiveness of a rebuttal, the publisher may solicit a response from the referee who made the original criticism. An editor may convey communications back and forth between authors and a referee, in effect allowing them to debate a point.{{cite journal |last=Coleman |first=Andrew M. |date=1979 |title=Editorial role in author-referee disagreements |url=https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/npb/people/amc/articles-pdfs/editrole.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the British Psychological Society |volume=32 |pages=390–391 |access-date=November 12, 2018 |archive-date=August 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810211449/http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/npb/people/amc/articles-pdfs/editrole.pdf |url-status=dead }}

Even in these cases, however, publishers do not allow multiple referees to confer with each other, though each reviewer may often see earlier comments submitted by other reviewers. The goal of the process is explicitly not to reach consensus or to persuade anyone to change their opinions, but instead to provide material for an informed editorial decision. One early study regarding referee disagreement found that agreement was greater than chance, if not much greater than chance, on six of seven article attributes (e.g. literature review and final recommendation to publish),{{cite journal |doi=10.1037/h0037631 |last1=Scott |first1=W. A. |year=1974 |title=Interreferee agreement on some characteristics of manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |journal=American Psychologist |volume=29 |issue=9 |pages=698–702 }} but this study was small and it was conducted on only one journal. At least one study has found that reviewer disagreement is not common, but this study is also small and on only one journal.{{cite journal |last=Pless |first=I. B. |title=When reviewers disagree |journal=Injury Prevention | volume = 12 | issue = 4 | page = 211 | date = August 2006 | pmid = 16887940 | pmc = 2586794 | doi = 10.1136/ip.2006.090806 }}

Traditionally, reviewers would often remain anonymous to the authors, but this standard varies both with time and with academic field. In some academic fields, most journals offer the reviewer the option of remaining anonymous or not, or a referee may opt to sign a review, thereby relinquishing anonymity. Published papers sometimes contain, in the acknowledgments section, thanks to anonymous or named referees who helped improve the paper. For example, Nature journals provide this option.

Sometimes authors may exclude certain reviewers: one study conducted on the Journal of Investigative Dermatology found that excluding reviewers doubled the chances of article acceptance.{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.309.5743.1974 |pmid=16179438 |first1=David |last1=Grimm |year=2005 |title=Suggesting or Excluding Reviewers Can Help Get Your Paper Published |journal=Science |volume=309 |issue=5743 |page=1974 |s2cid=38626590 |doi-access=free }} Some scholars are uncomfortable with this idea, arguing that it distorts the scientific process. Others argue that it protects against referees who are biased in some manner (e.g. professional rivalry, grudges).{{Cite journal |title=Reviewers Can Help Get Your Paper Published|first1=David |last1=Grimm |date=2005-09-23|journal=Science |doi=10.1126/article.61887 |doi-access=free}} In some cases, authors can choose referees for their manuscripts. mSphere, an open-access journal in microbial science, has moved to this model. Editor-in-Chief Mike Imperiale says this process is designed to reduce the time it takes to review papers and permit the authors to choose the most appropriate reviewers.{{Cite news|url=https://retractionwatch.com/2016/12/12/journals-new-program-choose-reviewers-get-decision-days/|title=Journal's new program: Choose your own reviewers – and get a decision in days|date=2016-12-12|work=Retraction Watch|access-date=2018-04-17}} But a scandal in 2015 shows how this choosing reviewers can encourage fraudulent reviews. Fake reviews were submitted to the Journal of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System in the names of author-recommended reviewers, causing the journal to eliminate this option.{{Cite news|url=https://retractionwatch.com/2015/12/24/eight-retractions-for-fake-reviews-leads-journal-to-suspend-author-nominations/|title=Eight retractions for fake reviews lead journal to suspend author nominations|date=2015-12-24|work=Retraction Watch|access-date=2018-04-17}}

If the manuscript has not been rejected during peer review, it returns to the authors for revisions. During this phase, the authors address the concerns raised by reviewers. William Stafford Noble offers ten rules for responding to reviewers. His rules include:{{cite journal | vauthors = Noble WS | title = Ten simple rules for writing a response to reviewers | journal = PLOS Computational Biology | volume = 13 | issue = 10 | page = e1005730 | date = October 2017 | pmid = 29023444 | pmc = 5638205 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005730 | bibcode = 2017PLSCB..13E5730N | doi-access = free }}

1. "Provide an overview, then quote the full set of reviews"
2. "Be polite and respectful of all reviewers"
3. "Accept the blame"
4. "Make the response self-contained"
5. "Respond to every point raised by the reviewer"
6. "Use typography to help the reviewer navigate your response"
7. "Whenever possible, begin your response to each comment with a direct answer to the point being raised"
8. "When possible, do what the reviewer asks"
9. "Be clear about what changed relative to the previous version"
10. "If necessary, write the response twice" (i.e. write a version for "venting" but then write a version the reviewers will see)

At a journal or book publisher, the task of picking reviewers typically falls to an editor.{{Cite journal |author=Lawrence O'Gorman |title=The (Frustrating) State of Peer Review |journal=IAPR Newsletter |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=3–5 |date=January 2008 |url=http://iapr.org/docs/newsletter-2008-01.pdf }} When a manuscript arrives, an editor solicits reviews from scholars or other experts who may or may not have already expressed a willingness to referee for that journal or book division. Granting agencies typically recruit a panel or committee of reviewers in advance of the arrival of applications.{{Cite journal |first1=Samuel M. |last1=Schwartz |first2=Donald W. |last2=Slater |first3=Fred P. |last3=Heydrick |first4=Gillian R. |last4=Woolett |title=A Report of the AIBS Peer-Review Process for the US Army's 1994 Breast Cancer Initiative |journal=BioScience |volume=45 |issue=8 |pages=558–563 |date=September 1995 |jstor=1312702 |doi=10.1093/bioscience/45.8.558 }}

Referees are supposed to inform the editor of any conflict of interests that might arise. Journals or individual editors may invite a manuscript's authors to name people whom they consider qualified to referee their work. For some journals this is a requirement of submission. Authors are sometimes also given the opportunity to name natural candidates who should be disqualified, in which case they may be asked to provide justification (typically expressed in terms of conflict of interest). {{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

Editors solicit author input in selecting referees because academic writing typically is very specialized. Editors often oversee many specialties, and can not be experts in all of them. But after an editor selects referees from the pool of candidates, the editor typically is obliged not to disclose the referees' identities to the authors, and in scientific journals, to each other. Policies on such matters differ among academic disciplines.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

One difficulty with respect to some manuscripts is that, there may be few scholars who truly qualify as experts, people who have themselves done work similar to that under review. This can frustrate the goals of reviewer anonymity and avoidance of conflicts of interest. Low-prestige or local journals and granting agencies that award little money are especially handicapped with regard to recruiting experts.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

A potential hindrance in recruiting referees is that they are usually not paid, largely because doing so would itself create a conflict of interest. Also, reviewing takes time away from their main activities, such as his or her own research.{{Cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=Tj |last2=Irvine |first2=Lesley |last3=Thomas |first3=Glen |date=2024-05-16 |title=Learning the art of Scholarly Peer-Review: Insights from the Communication Discipline |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X241254568 |journal=Media International Australia |language=en |doi=10.1177/1329878X241254568 |issn=1329-878X}} To the would-be recruiter's advantage, most potential referees are authors themselves, or at least readers, who know that the publication system requires that experts donate their time. Serving as a referee can even be a condition of a grant, or professional association membership.{{Cite journal|last1=Chloros|first1=George D.|last2=Giannoudis|first2=Vasileios P.|last3=Giannoudis|first3=Peter V.|date=2022-01-01|title=Peer-reviewing in Surgical Journals: Revolutionize or Perish?|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33630457|journal=Annals of Surgery|volume=275|issue=1|pages=e82–e90|doi=10.1097/SLA.0000000000004756|issn=1528-1140|pmid=33630457|s2cid=232049402}} In general, because of the explosion of the electronic information and the disproportionate increase in journal number versus the steady increase in the number of scientists has created a peer review crisis. The system currently in place is not responding to modern needs and will inevitably perish, unless radical reforms are made promptly. The academic system should revolutionize and establish strict peer review activity criteria essential for promotion and tenure, based on established universal metrics.{{Cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=Tj |last2=Irvine |first2=Lesley |last3=Thomas |first3=Glen |date=2024-05-16 |title=Learning the art of Scholarly Peer-Review: Insights from the Communication Discipline |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X241254568 |journal=Media International Australia |language=en |doi=10.1177/1329878X241254568 |issn=1329-878X}} That is, reward reviewers academically as it rewards researchers, which is currently not the case. All other incentives have failed.

Referees have the opportunity to prevent work that does not meet the standards of the field from being published, which is a position of some responsibility. Editors are at a special advantage in recruiting a scholar when they have overseen the publication of his or her work, or if the scholar is one who hopes to submit manuscripts to that editor's publishing entity in the future. Granting agencies, similarly, tend to seek referees among their present or former grantees. {{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

Peerage of Science was an independent service and a community where reviewer recruitment happens via Open Engagement: authors submit their manuscript to the service where it is made accessible for any non-affiliated scientist, and 'validated users' choose themselves what they want to review. The motivation to participate as a peer reviewer comes from a reputation system where the quality of the reviewing work is judged and scored by other users, and contributes to user profiles. Peerage of Science does not charge any fees to scientists, and does not pay peer reviewers. Participating publishers however pay to use the service, gaining access to all ongoing processes and the opportunity to make publishing offers to the authors.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

With independent peer review services the author usually retains the right to the work throughout the peer review process, and may choose the most appropriate journal to submit the work to.{{cite journal |doi=10.6087/kcse.2014.1.9 |title=The changing face of peer review |journal=Science Editing |volume=1 |pages=9–12 |year=2014 |last1=Hames |first1=Irene |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal | vauthors = Satyanarayana K | title = Journal publishing: the changing landscape | journal = The Indian Journal of Medical Research | volume = 138 | pages = 4–7 | year = 2013 | issue = 1 | pmid = 24056548 | pmc = 3767268 }} Peer review services may also provide advice or recommendations on most suitable journals for the work. Journals may still want to perform an independent peer review, without the potential conflict of interest that financial reimbursement may cause, or the risk that an author has contracted multiple peer review services but only presents the most favorable one.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

An alternative or complementary system of performing peer review is for the author to pay for having it performed. {{anchor|Rubriq}}Example of such service provider was Rubriq (2013-2017), that for each work assigned peer reviewers who were financially compensated for their efforts.{{cite journal |doi=10.1087/20130406 |title=RUBRIQ: Tools, services, and software to improve peer review |journal=Learned Publishing |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=265–268 |year=2013 |last1=Stemmle |first1=Laura |last2=Collier |first2=Keith |doi-access=free }}{{cite web|url=https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/09/25/portable-peer-review-rip/ |title=Portable Peer Review RIP|last1=Davis|first1=Phil|date=2017-09-25}}

For most scholarly publications, the identity of the reviewers is kept anonymised (also called "blind peer review"). The alternative, attributed peer review involves revealing the identities of the reviewers. Some reviewers choose to waive their right to anonymity, even when the journal's default format is blind peer review.

In anonymous peer review, reviewers are known to the journal editor or conference organiser but their names are not given to the article's author. In some cases, the author's identity can also be anonymised for the review process, with identifying information stripped from the document before review. The system is intended to reduce or eliminate bias.{{cite journal | vauthors = Spier R | title = The history of the peer-review process | journal = Trends in Biotechnology | volume = 20 | issue = 8 | pages = 357–358 | date = August 2002 | pmid = 12127284 | doi = 10.1016/S0167-7799(02)01985-6 }}

Some experts proposed blind review procedures for reviewing controversial research topics.{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/for.3980010109 |title=Research on scientific journals: Implications for editors and authors |journal=Journal of Forecasting |volume=1 |pages=83–104 |year=1982 |last1=Armstrong |first1=J. Scott |citeseerx=10.1.1.468.1453 |s2cid=11911654 }}

In double-blind peer review, which has been fashioned by sociology journals in the 1950s{{cite journal |doi=10.7264/N3542KVW |title=The Blind Shall See! The Question of Anonymity in Journal Peer Review |last1=Pontille |first1=David |last2=Torny |first2=Didier |year=2014 |journal=Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology |volume=4|doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024 |doi-access=free}} and remains more common in the social sciences and humanities than in the natural sciences,{{citation needed|date=December 2016}} the identity of the authors is concealed from the reviewers ("blinded"), and vice versa, lest the knowledge of authorship or concern about disapprobation from the author bias their review.{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature.2014.15564 |title=Journals weigh up double-blind peer review |journal=Nature |year=2014 |last1=Cressey |first1=Daniel |s2cid=155896469 }} Critics of the double-blind review process point out that, despite any editorial effort to ensure anonymity, the process often fails to do so, since certain approaches, methods, writing styles, notations, etc., point to a certain group of people in a research stream, and even to a particular person.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.nature.com/actionpotential/2005/12/doubleblind_peer_review.html |title=Double-blind peer review? |first=Annette |last=Markus |date=28 Dec 2005 |access-date=November 12, 2018 |archive-date=October 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022181512/http://blogs.nature.com/actionpotential/2005/12/doubleblind_peer_review.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/451605b |pmid=18256621 |title=Working double-blind |journal=Nature |volume=451 |issue=7179 |pages=605–606 |year=2008 |bibcode=2008Natur.451R.605. |s2cid=4344755 |doi-access=free }}

In many fields of "big science", the publicly available operation schedules of major equipments, such as telescopes or synchrotrons, would make the authors' names obvious to anyone who would care to look them up. Proponents of double-blind review argue that it performs no worse than single-blind, and that it generates a perception of fairness and equality in academic funding and publishing.{{cite journal | vauthors = Mainguy G, Motamedi MR, Mietchen D | title = Peer review--the newcomers' perspective | journal = PLOS Biology | volume = 3 | issue = 9 | page = e326 | date = September 2005 | pmid = 16149851 | pmc = 1201308 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030326 | doi-access = free }} Single-blind review is strongly dependent upon the goodwill of the participants, but no more so than double-blind review with easily identified authors.

As an alternative to single-blind and double-blind review, authors and reviewers are encouraged to declare their conflicts of interest when the names of authors and sometimes reviewers are known to the other. When conflicts are reported, the conflicting reviewer can be prohibited from reviewing and discussing the manuscript, or his or her review can instead be interpreted with the reported conflict in mind; the latter option is more often adopted when the conflict of interest is mild, such as a previous professional connection or a distant family relation. The incentive for reviewers to declare their conflicts of interest is a matter of professional ethics and individual integrity. Even when the reviews are not public, they are still a matter of record and the reviewer's credibility depends upon how they represent themselves among their peers. Some software engineering journals, such as the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, use non-blind reviews with reporting to editors of conflicts of interest by both authors and reviewers.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

A more rigorous standard of accountability is known as an audit. Because reviewers are not paid, they cannot be expected to put as much time and effort into a review as an audit requires. Therefore, academic journals such as Science, organizations such as the American Geophysical Union, and agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation maintain and archive scientific data and methods in the event another researcher wishes to replicate or audit the research after publication.{{cite web

| title = Policy on Referencing Data in and Archiving Data for AGU Publications

| quote = The following policy has been adopted for AGU publications in order to ensure that they can effectively and efficiently perform an expanded role in making the underlying data for articles available to researchers now and in the future.

| publisher = American Geophysical Union

| year = 2012

| url = http://www.agu.org/pubs/authors/policies/data_policy.shtml

| access-date = 2012-09-08

}}

• This policy was first adopted by the AGU Publications Committee in November 1993 and then revised March 1994, December 1995, October 1996.
• See also AGU [http://library.ucar.edu/content/events/data_workshop/presentations/Cook_BridgingDataLifecyclesWorkshop.pdf Data Policy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130506235915/http://library.ucar.edu/content/events/data_workshop/presentations/Cook_BridgingDataLifecyclesWorkshop.pdf |date=May 6, 2013 }} by Bill Cook. April 4, 2012.{{cite web

| title = Data Management & Sharing Frequently Asked Questions

| publisher = National Science Foundation

| date = November 30, 2010

| url = https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmpfaqs.jsp

| access-date = 2012-09-08

| archive-date = July 11, 2017

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170711021016/https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmpfaqs.jsp

| url-status = dead

}}{{cite journal |doi=10.1109/JPROC.2004.842761 |title=Data Grids, Digital Libraries, and Persistent Archives: An Integrated Approach to Sharing, Publishing, and Archiving Data |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |volume=93 |issue=3 |pages=578–588 |year=2005 |last1=Moore |first1=R.W. |last2=Rajasekar |first2=A. |last3=Wan |first3=M. |s2cid=8597031 }}

The traditional anonymous peer review has been criticized for its lack of accountability, the possibility of abuse by reviewers or by those who manage the peer review process (that is, journal editors),{{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=Craig |chapter=Peer review and the ethics of internet publishing |chapter-url={{Google books|d_U4BjPtI7MC|page=85|plainurl=yes}} |editor1-first=Anne Hudson |editor1-last=Jones |editor2-first=Faith |editor2-last=McLellan |title=Ethical Issues in Biomedical Publication |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University |year=2000 |pages=85–111 |isbn=978-0-8018-6315-8 }} its possible bias, and its inconsistency,{{cite journal | vauthors = Rothwell PM, Martyn CN | title = Reproducibility of peer review in clinical neuroscience. Is agreement between reviewers any greater than would be expected by chance alone? | journal = Brain | volume = 123 | issue = 9 | pages = 1964–1969 | date = September 2000 | pmid = 10960059 | doi = 10.1093/brain/123.9.1964 | doi-access = free }} alongside other flaws.{{cite web |url=http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/rowland.pdf |title=The Peer Review Process |access-date=4 January 2012 |archive-date=December 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121221052320/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/rowland.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{Cite journal |author=Alison McCook |title=Is Peer Review Broken? |journal=The Scientist |date=February 2006 |url=http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/23672/title/Is-Peer-Review-Broken-/}} Eugene Koonin, a senior investigator at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, asserts that the system has "well-known ills" and advocates "open peer review".{{cite journal | url=http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/nature05005.html| title = Reviving a culture of scientific debate| journal = Nature| year = 2006| last1 = Koonin| first1 = Eugene| doi = 10.1038/nature05005| doi-broken-date = November 2, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121221075724/http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/nature05005.html| archive-date = December 21, 2012|url-status=dead}}

{{excerpt|Open peer review}}

The process of peer review is not restricted to the publication process managed by academic journals. In particular, some forms of peer review can occur before an article is submitted to a journal and/or after it is published by the journal.

Manuscripts are typically reviewed by colleagues before submission, and if the manuscript is uploaded to preprint servers, such as ArXiv, BioRxiv or SSRN, researchers can read and comment on the manuscript. The practice to upload to preprint servers, and the activity of discussion heavily depend on the field,{{Cite news|url=https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/04/18/stars-aligning-preprints/|title=The Stars Are Aligning for Preprints |date=2017-04-18|work=The Scholarly Kitchen|access-date=2018-05-19}}{{Cite web|url=http://asapbio.org/preprint-info/biology-preprints-over-time|title=Biology preprints over time {{!}} ASAPbio|website=asapbio.org|access-date=2018-05-19}} and it allows an open pre-publication peer review. The advantage of this method is speed and transparency of the review process. Anyone can give feedback, typically in form of comments, and typically not anonymously. These comments are also public, and can be responded to, therefore author-reviewer communication is not restricted to the typical 2–4 rounds of exchanges in traditional publishing. The authors can incorporate comments from a wide range of people instead of feedback from the typically 3–4 reviewers. The disadvantage is that a far larger number of papers are presented to the community without any guarantee on quality.

After a manuscript is published, the process of peer review continues as publications are read, known as post-publication peer review. Readers will often send letters to the editor of a journal, or correspond with the editor via an on-line journal club. In this way, all "peers" may offer review and critique of published literature. The introduction of the "epub ahead of print" practice in many journals has made possible the simultaneous publication of unsolicited letters to the editor together with the original paper in the print issue.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

A variation on this theme is open peer commentary, in which commentaries from specialists are solicited on published articles and the authors are invited to respond. Journals using this process solicit and publish non-anonymous commentaries on the "target paper" together with the paper, and with original authors' reply as a matter of course. Open peer commentary was first implemented by the anthropologist Sol Tax, who founded the journal Current Anthropology in 1957.{{cite web |url=http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/950119/tax.shtml |title=Obituary: Sol Tax, Anthropology |access-date=2010-10-22}} The journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, published by Cambridge University Press, was founded by Stevan Harnad in 1978{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S0140525X00059045 |title=Editorial |journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences |volume=1 |pages=1–2 |year=1978 |doi-access=free }} and modeled on Current Anthropology's open peer commentary feature.New Scientist, 20 March 1980, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_qVe8jMDAB4C&pg=PA945 p. 945]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Psycoloquy (1990–2002){{cite journal |url=http://cogprints.org/1580/ |title=Post-Gutenberg Galaxy: The Fourth Revolution in the Means of Production of Knowledge |author=Stevan Harnad |journal=Public-Access Computer Systems Review |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=39–53 |year=1991 |access-date=2010-10-22}} was based on the same feature, but this time implemented online. Since 2016 open peer commentary is also provided by the journal Animal Sentience.

In addition to journals hosting their own articles' reviews, there are also external, independent websites dedicated to post-publication peer-review, such as PubPeer which allows anonymous commenting of published literature and pushes authors to answer these comments.{{Cite web|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01700198/document|title=Pubpeer: vigilante science, journal club or alarm raiser? The controversies over anonymity in post-publication peer review|last=Torny|first=Didier|date=2018}} It has been suggested that post-publication reviews from these sites should be editorially considered as well.{{cite journal|vauthors=Slavov N|date=November 2015|title=Making the most of peer review|journal=eLife|volume=4|doi=10.7554/elife.12708|pmid=26559758|pmc=4641509 |doi-access=free }} The megajournals F1000Research and ScienceOpen publish openly both the identity of the reviewers and the reviewer's report alongside the article.

Some journals use post-publication peer review as formal review method, instead of pre-publication review. This was first introduced in 2001, by Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).{{cite journal |vauthors=Pöschl U|year=2012|title=Multi-stage open peer review: scientific evaluation integrating the strengths of traditional peer review with the virtues of transparency and self-regulation |journal=Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience |volume=6 |page=33 |doi=10.3389/fncom.2012.00033 |pmid=22783183 |pmc=3389610 |doi-access=free}} More recently F1000Research, Qeios, and ScienceOpen were launched as megajournals with post-publication review as formal review method.{{Cite magazine |author=Jeffrey Marlow |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/07/publish-first-ask-questions-later/ |title=Publish First, Ask Questions Later |magazine=Wired |date=July 23, 2013|access-date=2015-01-13}}{{cite web |url=http://blog.scienceopen.com/2014/12/not-so-secret-pppr-recipe/ |title=The recipe for our (not so) secret Post-Publication Peer Review sauce! |author=Elizabeth Allen |date=September 29, 2017 |orig-year=December 8, 2014 |website=ScienceOpen.com |access-date=2015-01-13}}{{Cite news |last=Coy |first=Peter |date=2022-01-28 |title=Opinion {{!}} How to Disseminate Science Quickly |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/opinion/peer-review-research-studies.html |access-date=2022-10-04 |issn=0362-4331}} At ACP, F1000Research, and Qeios peer reviewers are formally invited, much like at pre-publication review journals. Articles that pass peer review at those three journals are included in external scholarly databases.{{cite web |url=http://www.stm-publishing.com/f1000research-peer-reviewed-articles-now-visible-on-pubmed-and-pubmed-central/ |title=F1000Research peer-reviewed articles now visible on PubMed and PubMed Central |date=December 12, 2013 |publisher=STM Publishing News |access-date=2015-01-13}}{{Cite news |date=2022-01-28 |title=Opinion {{!}} How to Disseminate Science Quickly |newspaper=The New York Times |language=en |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/opinion/peer-review-research-studies.html |access-date=2022-10-04|last1=Coy |first1=Peter }}

Recent research has called attention to the use of social media technologies and science blogs as a means of informal, post-publication peer review, as in the case of the #arseniclife (or GFAJ-1) controversy.{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/0963662516649806 |pmid=27229853 |title=The case of #arseniclife: Blogs and Twitter in informal peer review |journal=Public Understanding of Science |volume=26 |issue=8 |pages=937–952 |year=2017 |last1=Yeo |first1=Sara K. |last2=Liang |first2=Xuan |last3=Brossard |first3=Dominique |last4=Rose |first4=Kathleen M. |last5=Korzekwa |first5=Kaine |last6=Scheufele |first6=Dietram A. |last7=Xenos |first7=Michael A. |s2cid=20905189 }} In December 2010, an article published in Scienceexpress (the ahead-of-print version of Science) generated both excitement and skepticism, as its authors{{snd}}led by NASA astrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon{{snd}}claimed to have discovered and cultured a certain bacteria that could replace phosphorus with arsenic in its physiological building blocks. At the time of the article's publication, NASA issued press statements suggesting that the finding would impact the search for extraterrestrial life, sparking excitement on Twitter under the hashtag #arseniclife, as well as criticism from fellow experts who voiced skepticism via their personal blogs.Redfield, Rosemary (4 December 2010). [http://rrresearch.blogspot.com/2010/12/arsenic-associated-bacteria-nasas.html "Arsenic-associated bacteria (NASA's claims)"]. RR Research blog. Retrieved 4 December 2010. Ultimately, the controversy surrounding the article attracted media attention,Zimmer, Carl (7 December 2010). [http://www.slate.com/id/2276919/ "Scientists see fatal flaws in the NASA study of arsenic-based life"]. Slate. Retrieved 7 December 2010. and one of the most vocal scientific critics{{snd}}Rosemary Redfield{{snd}}formally published in July 2012{{cite journal |last1=Reaves |first1=M. L. |last2=Sinha |first2=S. |last3=Rabinowitz |first3=J. D. |last4=Kruglyak |first4=L. |last5=Redfield |first5=R. J. |title=Absence of detectable arsenate in DNA from arsenate-grown GFAJ-1 cells | journal = Science | volume = 337 | issue = 6093 | pages = 470–473 | date = July 2012 | pmid = 22773140 | doi = 10.1126/science.1219861 | pmc = 3845625 | arxiv = 1201.6643 | bibcode = 2012Sci...337..470R }} regarding her and her colleagues' unsuccessful attempt to replicate the NASA scientists' original findings.

Researchers following the impact of the #arseniclife case on social media discussions and peer review processes concluded the following:

Our results indicate that interactive online communication technologies can enable members in the broader scientific community to perform the role of journal reviewers to legitimize scientific information after it has advanced through formal review channels. In addition, a variety of audiences can attend to scientific controversies through these technologies and observe an informal process of post-publication peer review. (p 946)

{{Excessive citations|section|date=January 2022}}

{{see also|Preregistration (science)}}

Studies which report a positive or statistically significant result are far more likely to be published than ones which do not. A counter-measure to this positivity bias is to hide or make unavailable the results in the paper, making journal acceptance more like scientific grant agencies reviewing research proposals. Versions include:

1. Result-blind peer review or results blind peer review, first proposed 1966: Reviewers receive an edited version of the submitted paper which omits the results and conclusion section.{{cite book |page=36 |chapter=Intentional Error |title=Experimenter Effects in Behavioral Research |first=Robert |last=Rosenthal |year=1966 }}{{cite journal | vauthors = Newcombe RG | title = Towards a reduction in publication bias | journal = British Medical Journal | volume = 295 | issue = 6599 | pages = 656–659 | date = September 1987 | pmid = 3117278 | pmc = 1257777 | doi = 10.1136/bmj.295.6599.656 }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1037/0003-066X.43.8.635 |title=Improving what is published: A model in search of an editor |journal=American Psychologist |volume=43 |issue=8 |pages=635–642 |year=1988 |last1=Kupfersmid |first1=Joel }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1136/bmj.331.7517.638-a |pmid=16166149 |pmc=1215604 |title=Review of publication bias in studies on publication bias: Here's a proposal for editors that may help reduce publication bias |journal=BMJ |volume=331 |issue=7517 |page=638.2 |year=2005 |last1=Glymour |first1=M. Maria |last2=Kawachi |first2=Ichiro }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.jclinepi.2013.03.023 |pmid=23845183 |title=A two-step manuscript submission process can reduce publication bias |journal=Journal of Clinical Epidemiology |volume=66 |issue=9 |pages=946–947 |year=2013 |last1=Smulders |first1=Yvo M. }} In a two-stage version, a second round of reviews or editorial judgment is based on the full paper version, which was first proposed in 1977.{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/BF01173636 |title=Publication prejudices: An experimental study of confirmatory bias in the peer review system |journal=Cognitive Therapy and Research |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=161–175 |year=1977 |last1=Mahoney |first1=Michael J. |s2cid=7350256 }}Wiseman et al 2019, [https://peerj.com/articles/6232/ "Registered reports: an early example and analysis"]
2. : Conclusion-blind review, proposed by Robin Hanson in 2007 extends this further asking all authors to submit a positive and a negative version, and only after the journal has accepted the article authors reveal which is the real version.[http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/01/conclusionblind.html "Conclusion-Blind Review"], 16 January 2007; [http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/11/results-blind-peer-review.html "Result Blind Review"], 6 November 2010; [http://www.overcomingbias.com/2012/04/who-wants-unbiased-journals.html "Who Wants Unbiased Journals?"], 27 April 2012
3. Pre-accepted articles or outcome-unbiased journals or advance publication review or registered reports or prior to results submission or early acceptance{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/00031305.1970.10478884 |title=A Proposal for a New Editorial Policy in the Social Sciences |journal=The American Statistician |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=16–19 |year=1970 |last1=Walster |first1=G. William |last2=Cleary |first2=T. Anne |s2cid=20366741 }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s11948-997-0017-3 |title=Peer review for journals: Evidence on quality control, fairness, and innovation |journal=Science and Engineering Ethics |volume=3 |pages=63–84 |year=1997 |last1=Armstrong |first1=J. Scott |citeseerx=10.1.1.37.5054 |s2cid=7920654 }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1093/ije/dym168 |pmid=17875575 |title=Quality in epidemiological research: Should we be submitting papers before we have the results and submitting more hypothesis-generating research? |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=940–943 |year=2007 |last1=Lawlor |first1=D. A. |doi-access=free }}[http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2012/04/academic-reforms-a-four-part-proposal.html "Academic reforms: A four-part proposal"], Brendan Nyhan, 16 April 2012[http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2012/04/more-on-pre-accepted-academic-articles.html "More on pre-accepted academic articles"], 27 April 2012{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S1049096515000463 |title=Increasing the Credibility of Political Science Research: A Proposal for Journal Reforms |journal=PS: Political Science & Politics |volume=48 |pages=78–83 |year=2015 |last1=Nyhan |first1=Brendan |doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024 |s2cid=154801036 }}[http://haystack.csail.mit.edu/blog/2011/02/17/a-proposal-for-increasing-evaluation-in-cs-research-publication/ "A Proposal for Increasing Evaluation in CS Research Publication"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816212336/http://haystack.csail.mit.edu/blog/2011/02/17/a-proposal-for-increasing-evaluation-in-cs-research-publication/ |date=August 16, 2016 }}, David Karger, 17 February 2011[http://chris-said.io/2012/04/17/its-the-incentives-structure-people-why-science-reform-must-come-from-the-granting-agencies/ "It's the incentive structure, people! Why science reform must come from the granting agencies."], Chris Said, 17 April 2012{{cite journal | vauthors = Chambers CD | title = Registered reports: a new publishing initiative at Cortex | journal = Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior | volume = 49 | issue = 3 | pages = 609–610 | date = March 2013 | pmid = 23347556 | doi = 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.12.016 | hdl = 2027.42/144295 | s2cid = 140204881 | url = http://orca.cf.ac.uk/45177/1/Chambers_Cortex_2013b_GreenOA.pdf }} extends study pre-registration to the point that journals accepted or reject papers based on the version of the paper written before the results or conclusions have been made (an enlarged study protocol), but instead describes the theoretical justification, experimental design, and statistical analysis. Only once the proposed hypothesis and methodology have been accepted by reviewers, the authors would collect the data or analyze previously collected data. A limited variant of a pre-accepted article was The Lancet's study protocol review from 1997 to 2015 reviewed and published randomized trial protocols with a guarantee that the eventual paper would at least be sent out to peer review rather than immediately rejected.[http://www.bitss.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/20131211-bitss-green-humphreys-smith2.pdf "Read it, understand it, believe it, use it: Principles and proposals for a more credible research publication"], Green et al 2013, citing [http://www.thelancet.com/lancet/information-for-authors/protocol-review "Protocol Review"]{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01131-9 |title=Protocol review at The Lancet: 1997–2015 |journal=The Lancet |volume=386 |issue=10012 |pages=2456–2457 |year=2015 |author1=((The Editors of The Lancet)) |s2cid=140207427 }} For example, Nature Human Behaviour has adopted the registered report format, as it "shift[s] the emphasis from the results of research to the questions that guide the research and the methods used to answer them".{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1038/s41562-016-0034|title = Promoting reproducibility with registered reports|journal = Nature Human Behaviour|volume = 1|page = 0034|year = 2017|s2cid = 28976450|doi-access = free}} The European Journal of Personality defines this format: "In a registered report, authors create a study proposal that includes theoretical and empirical background, research questions/hypotheses, and pilot data (if available). Upon submission, this proposal will then be reviewed prior to data collection, and if accepted, the paper resulting from this peer-reviewed procedure will be published, regardless of the study outcomes."{{Cite web | url=https://www.ejp-blog.com/blog/2017/2/3/streamlined-review-and-registered-reports-coming-soon | title=Streamlined review and registered reports soon to be official at EJP| date=February 6, 2018}} An analysis of almost 100 preregistered studies showed that registered reports adhered to an average of 92% of their preregistrations, but unreviewed preregistrations adhered only to 60%.{{Cite journal |last=Clayson |first=Peter E. |last2=Carbine |first2=Kaylie A. |last3=Shuford |first3=John L. |last4=McDonald |first4=Julia B. |last5=Larson |first5=Michael J. |date=2025-04-01 |title=A registered report of preregistration practices in studies of electroencephalogram (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs): A first look at accessibility, adherence, transparency, and selection bias |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0010945225000577 |journal=Cortex |volume=185 |pages=253–269 |doi=10.1016/j.cortex.2025.02.008 |issn=0010-9452}} These findings suggest that when the initial study plan is accepted for publication, there may be a reduced incentive to change preregistered plans.

The following journals used result-blind peer review or pre-accepted articles:

• The European Journal of Parapsychology, under Martin Johnson (who proposed a version of Registered Reports in 1974),[https://www.gwern.net/docs/statistics/peerreview/1975-johnson-2.pdf EJP editorial], Johnson 1975 (European Journal of Parapsychology. 1975;1(1):1-2); [https://www.gwern.net/docs/statistics/peerreview/1975-johnson.pdf "Models of control and control of bias"], Johnson 1975 (European Journal of Parapsychology. 1975;1(1):36–44); [https://www.gwern.net/docs/statistics/peerreview/1976-johnson.pdf "On Publication Policy Regarding Non-Significant Results"], Johnson 1976 (European Journal of Parapsychology 1976;1(2):1–5) began accepting papers based on submitted designs and then publishing them, from 1976 to 1993, and published 25 RRs total
• The International Journal of Forecasting used opt-in result-blind peer review and pre-accepted articles from before 1986{{cite journal |first1=J. Scott |last1=Armstrong |first2=Estella Bee |last2=Dagum |first3=Robert |last3=Fildes |first4=Spyros |last4=Makridakis |year=1986 |title=Publishing Standards for Research on Forecasting (editorial) |journal=Marketing Papers |issue=86 |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers/86 }} through 1996/1997.{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/0169-2070(95)00626-5 |title=Publication of research on controversial topics: The early acceptance procedure |journal=International Journal of Forecasting |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=299–302 |year=1996 |last1=Armstrong |first1=J.Scott |s2cid=8545569 |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/marketing_papers/106 |doi-access=free }}
• The journal Applied Psychological Measurement offered an opt-in "advance publication review" process from 1989 to 1996, ending use after only 5 papers were submitted.{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/014662168901300101 |title=An Experiment in Publication: Advance Publication Review |journal=Applied Psychological Measurement |volume=13 |pages=1–7 |year=1989 |last1=Weiss |first1=David J. |s2cid=122661856 }}
• The JAMA Internal Medicine found in a 2009 survey that 86% of its reviewers would be willing to work in a result-blind peer review process, and ran a pilot experiment with a two-stage result-blind peer review, showing the unblinded step benefited positive studies more than negatives.{{cite journal |doi=10.1001/archinternmed.2009.100 |pmid=19506169 |title=Editorial Policies and Publication Bias |journal=Archives of Internal Medicine |volume=169 |issue=11 |pages=1022–1023 |year=2009 |last1=Sridharan |first1=Lakshmi |last2=Greenland |first2=Philip |s2cid=5158555 }} but the journal does not currently use result-blind peer review.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}
• The Center for Open Science encourages using "Registered Reports" (pre-accepted articles)[https://osf.io/8mpji/wiki/home/ "Registered Reports"], OSF[https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers-update/story/innovation-in-publishing/registered-reports-a-step-change-in-scientific-publishing "Registered Reports: A step change in scientific publishing; Professor Chris Chambers, Registered Reports Editor of the Elsevier journal Cortex and one of the concept's founders, on how the initiative combats publication bias"], Chambers, 13 November 2014{{cite journal |doi=10.3934/Neuroscience.2014.1.4 |title=Instead of "playing the game" it is time to change the rules: Registered Reports at AIMS Neuroscience and beyond |journal=AIMS Neuroscience |volume=1 |pages=4–17 |year=2014 |last1=d. Chambers |first1=Christopher |last2=Feredoes |first2=Eva |last3=d. Muthukumaraswamy |first3=Suresh |last4=j. Etchells |first4=Peter |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1027/1864-9335/a000192 |title=Registered Reports |journal=Social Psychology |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=137–141 |year=2014 |last1=Nosek |first1=Brian A. |last2=Lakens |first2=Daniël |url=https://zenodo.org/record/235813 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last=Pain |first=Elisabeth |date=15 December 2015 |doi=10.1126/science.caredit.a1500282 | title=Register your study as a new publication option |journal=Science }}[https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2014/may/20/psychology-registration-revolution "Psychology's 'registration revolution': Moves to uphold transparency are not only making psychology more scientific{{snd}}they are harnessing our knowledge of the mind to strengthen science"], Guardian, 20 May 2014 beginning in 2013. As of October 2017, ~80 journals offer Registered Reports in general, have had special issues of Registered Reports, or limited acceptance of Registered Reports (e.g. replications only) including AIMS Neuroscience, Cortex, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Social Psychology, & Comparative Political Studies
• Comparative Political Studies published results of its pilot experiment of 19 submissions of which 3 were pre-accepted in 2016. the process worked well but submissions were weighted towards quantitative experimental designs, and reduced the amount of 'fishing' as submitters and reviewers focused on theoretical backing, substantive importance of results, with attention to the statistical power and implications of a null result, concluding that "we can clearly state that this form of review lead to papers that were of the highest quality. We would love to see a top journal adopt results-free review as a policy, at very least allowing results-free review as one among several standard submission options."{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/0010414016655539 |title=Can Results-Free Review Reduce Publication Bias? The Results and Implications of a Pilot Study |journal=Comparative Political Studies |volume=49 |issue=13 |pages=1667–1703 |year=2016 |last1=Findley |first1=Michael G. |last2=Jensen |first2=Nathan M. |last3=Malesky |first3=Edmund J. |author3-link=Edmund Malesky |last4=Pepinsky |first4=Thomas B. |s2cid=44705752 }}

Extended peer review is the process of including people and groups with experience beyond that of working academics in the processes of assuring the quality of research. If conducted systematically, this can lead to more reliable, or applicable, results than a peer review process conducted purely by academics.{{cite book |last1=Funtowicz |first1=S |editor1-last=Smelser |editor1-first=Neil J |editor2-last=Baltes |editor2-first=Paul B |title=International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences |date=6 December 2001 |pages=11179–11183 |chapter=Peer review and quality control}}

{{cleanup merge|1=Peer review#Criticism|21=section}}

Scholarly peer review has been subject to several criticisms, and various proposals for reforming the system have been suggested over the years.{{Cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=Tj |last2=Irvine |first2=Lesley |last3=Thomas |first3=Glen |date=2024-05-16 |title=Learning the art of Scholarly Peer-Review: Insights from the Communication Discipline |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X241254568 |journal=Media International Australia |language=en |doi=10.1177/1329878X241254568 |issn=1329-878X}} Many studies have emphasized the problems inherent to the process of peer review.{{Cite journal|last1=Squazzoni|first1=Flaminio|last2=Brezis|first2=Elise|last3=Marušić|first3=Ana|date=2017-10-01|title=Scientometrics of peer review|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2518-4|journal=Scientometrics|language=en|volume=113|issue=1|pages=501–502|doi=10.1007/s11192-017-2518-4|issn=1588-2861|pmc=5629222|pmid=29056787}} Moreover, Ragone et al.,{{Cite journal|last1=Ragone|first1=Azzurra|last2=Mirylenka|first2=Katsiaryna|last3=Casati|first3=Fabio|last4=Marchese|first4=Maurizio|date=2013-11-01|title=On peer review in computer science: analysis of its effectiveness and suggestions for improvement|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1002-z|journal=Scientometrics|volume=97|issue=2|pages=317–356|doi=10.1007/s11192-013-1002-z|s2cid=16803499|issn=0138-9130}} have shown that there is a low correlation between peer review outcomes and the future impact measured by citations.

Various biomedical editors in particular have expressed criticism of peer review.{{cite journal |doi=10.1001/jama.289.11.1438 |title=Fifth International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication |journal=JAMA |volume=289 |issue=11 |page=1438 |year=2003 |last1=Rennie |first1=Drummond |last2=Flanagin |first2=Annette |last3=Smith |first3=Richard |last4=Smith |first4=Jane }}{{cite journal | vauthors = Horton R | title = Genetically modified food: consternation, confusion, and crack-up | journal = The Medical Journal of Australia | volume = 172 | issue = 4 | pages = 148–149 | date = February 2000 | pmid = 10772580 | doi = 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2000.tb125533.x| s2cid = 36401069 | url = http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/172_04_210200/horton/horton.html }} A Cochrane review found little empirical evidence that peer review ensures quality in biomedical research,{{Cite journal|last1=Jefferson|first1=Tom|last2=Rudin|first2=Melanie|last3=Brodney Folse|first3=Suzanne|last4=Davidoff|first4=Frank|date=2007-04-18|editor-last=Cochrane Methodology Review Group|title=Editorial peer review for improving the quality of reports of biomedical studies|journal=Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews|volume=2010 |issue=2|page=MR000016|language=en|doi=10.1002/14651858.MR000016.pub3|pmid=17443635|pmc=8973931 }} while a second systematic review and meta-analysis found a need for evidence-based peer review in biomedicine given the paucity of assessment of the interventions designed to improve the process.{{Cite journal|last1=Bruce|first1=Rachel|last2=Chauvin|first2=Anthony|last3=Trinquart|first3=Ludovic|last4=Ravaud|first4=Philippe|last5=Boutron|first5=Isabelle|date=December 2016|title=Impact of interventions to improve the quality of peer review of biomedical journals: a systematic review and meta-analysis|journal=BMC Medicine|language=en|volume=14|issue=1|page=85|doi=10.1186/s12916-016-0631-5|issn=1741-7015|pmc=4902984|pmid=27287500 |doi-access=free }}

To an outsider, the anonymous, pre-publication peer review process is opaque. Certain journals are accused of not carrying out stringent peer review in order to more easily expand their customer base, particularly in journals where authors pay a fee before publication.{{cite journal|title=Peer Review and Reproducibility. Crisis or Time for Course Correction?|first=John R.|last=Couchman|date=November 11, 2013|journal=Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry|volume=62|issue=1|pages=9–10|doi=10.1369/0022155413513462|pmid=24217925|pmc=3873808}} Richard Smith, MD, former editor of the British Medical Journal, has claimed that peer review is "ineffective, largely a lottery, anti-innovatory, slow, expensive, wasteful of scientific time, inefficient, easily abused, prone to bias, unable to detect fraud and irrelevant; Several studies have shown that peer review is biased against the provincial and those from low- and middle-income countries; Many journals take months and even years to publish and the process wastes researchers' time. As for the cost, the Research Information Network estimated the global cost of peer review at £1.9 billion in 2008."{{Cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/content/the-peer-review-drugs-dont-work|title=The peer review drugs don't work|date=2015-05-28|work=Times Higher Education|access-date=2018-10-23|language=en}}

Brezis and Birukou have further argued that that the process is weakened by the fact that reviewers are not investing the same amount of time to analyze the projects. This heterogeneity among referees, the two argue, will lead to seriously affect the whole peer review process, and will lead to main arbitrariness in the results of the process.{{Cite journal |last1=Brezis |first1=Elise S. |last2=Birukou |first2=Aliaksandr |date=2020-04-01 |title=Arbitrariness in the peer review process |journal=Scientometrics |language=en |volume=123 |issue=1 |pages=393–411 |doi=10.1007/s11192-020-03348-1 |issn=1588-2861 |s2cid=211017926 |doi-access=free}} 50x50px Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In addition, Australia's Innovative Research Universities group (a coalition of seven comprehensive universities committed to inclusive excellence in teaching, learning and research in Australia) has found that "peer review disadvantages researchers in their early careers, when they rely on competitive grants to cover their salaries, and when unsuccessful funding applications often mark the end of a research idea".{{Cite news|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/peer-review-works-against-early-career-researchers|title=Peer review 'works against' early career researchers|date=2018-07-16|work=Times Higher Education (THE)|access-date=2018-10-23|language=en}}

Peer review publication is a common requirement for academic tenure. This requirement has been criticised on cultural grounds. In 2011, University of British Columbia assistant law professor, Lorna McCue, argued that emphasis on peer review publication was culturally inappropriate as it did not recognize the importance of Indigenous oral traditions.{{Cite web |title=McCue v. The University of British Columbia (No. 4), 2018 BCHRT 45 (CanLII) |url=https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bchrt/doc/2018/2018bchrt45/2018bchrt45.html}} In 2018, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal found that this complaint was not justified .{{Cite web |title=Law prof fighting for tenure track loses legal battle |url=https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/general/law-prof-fighting-for-tenure-track-loses-legal-battle/274994 |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=www.canadianlawyermag.com |language=en}}

There is an ongoing discussion about a peer-review crisis. In 2022 Inside Higher Ed reported a serious shortage of scholars to review submitted articles and bigger structural problems amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.{{Cite web |title=Peer-review crisis creates problems for journals and scholars |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/06/13/peer-review-crisis-creates-problems-journals-and-scholars |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=www.insidehighered.com |language=en}}

Brezis and Birukou have argued that a major issues in the peer process is that referees display homophily in their taste and perception of innovative ideas. This means that reviewers who are developing conventional ideas tend to give low grades to more innovative projects, while reviewers who develop innovative ideas tend, by homophily, to give higher grades to innovative projects.

Similarly, peer review is more problematic when choosing the projects to be funded since innovative projects are not highly ranked in the existing peer-review process. The peer-review process leads to conformity, i.e., the selection of less controversial projects and papers. This may even influence the type of proposals scholars will propose, since scholars need to find financing for their research as discussed by Martin, 1997:{{Cite web|last=Martin|first=B.|title=Chapter 5: Peer review as scholarly conformity|url=https://www.bmartin.cc/dissent/documents/ss/ss5.html|access-date=|website=www.bmartin.cc}} "A common informal view is that it is easier to obtain funds for conventional projects. Those who are eager to get funding are not likely to propose radical or unorthodox projects. Since you don't know who the referees are going to be, it is best to assume that they are middle-of-the-road. Therefore, the middle-of-the-road application is safer".

Researchers have peer-reviewed manuscripts prior to publishing them in a variety of ways since the 18th century.{{cite journal|last1=Csiszar|first1=Alex|year=2016|title=Peer Review: Troubled from the Start|journal=Nature|volume=532|issue=7599|pages=306–308|bibcode=2016Natur.532..306C|doi=10.1038/532306a|pmid=27111616|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Moxham|first1=Noah|last2=Fyfe|first2=Aileen|year=2018|title=The Royal Society and the Prehistory of Peer Review, 1665–1965|url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/65042/3/Peer%20review%20v30%20AAM%20SUBMTD.pdf|journal=The Historical Journal|volume=61|issue=4|pages=863–889|doi=10.1017/S0018246X17000334|s2cid=164984479}} The main goal of this practice is to improve the relevance and accuracy of scientific discussions. Even though experts often criticize peer review for a number of reasons, the process is still often considered the "gold standard" of science.{{cite web|last1=Moore|first1=John|year=2006|title=Does Peer Review Mean the Same to the Public as It Does to Scientists?|via=Nature|work=peertopeer Peer review blog |doi=|department=Nature peer review debate|url=https://blogs.nature.com/peer-to-peer/2006/06/perspective_does_peer_review_m.html|access-date=May 23, 2023|archive-date=September 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923085844/https://blogs.nature.com/peer-to-peer/2006/06/perspective_does_peer_review_m.html|url-status=dead}} Occasionally however, peer review approves studies that are later found to be wrong and rarely deceptive or fraudulent results are discovered prior to publication.{{cite journal|last1=Ferguson|first1=Cat|last2=Marcus|first2=Adam|last3=Oransky|first3=Ivan|year=2014|title=Publishing: The Peer-Review Scam|journal=Nature|volume=515|issue=7528|pages=480–482|bibcode=2014Natur.515..480F|doi=10.1038/515480a|pmid=25428481|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Budd|first1=J. M.|last2=Sievert|first2=M.|last3=Schultz|first3=T. R.|year=1998|title=Phenomena of Retraction: Reasons for Retraction and Citations to the Publications|journal=JAMA|volume=280|issue=3|pages=296–297|doi=10.1001/jama.280.3.296|pmid=9676689|doi-access=free}} Thus, there seems to be an element of discord between the ideology behind and the practice of peer review. By failing to effectively communicate that peer review is imperfect, the message conveyed to the wider public is that studies published in peer-reviewed journals are "true" and that peer review protects the literature from flawed science. A number of well-established criticisms exist of many elements of peer review.{{cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Richard|year=2006|title=Peer Review: A Flawed Process at the Heart of Science and Journals|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=99|issue=4|pages=178–182|doi=10.1177/014107680609900414|pmc=1420798|pmid=16574968}}{{cite journal|last1=Ross-Hellauer|first1=Tony|year=2017|title=What Is Open Peer Review? A Systematic Review|journal=F1000Research|volume=6|page=588|doi=10.12688/f1000research.11369.2|pmc=5437951|pmid=28580134 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal|last1=Tennant|first1=Jonathan P.|last2=Dugan|first2=Jonathan M.|last3=Graziotin|first3=Daniel|last4=Jacques|first4=Damien C.|last5=Waldner|first5=François|last6=Mietchen|first6=Daniel|last7=Elkhatib|first7=Yehia|last8=b. Collister|first8=Lauren|last9=Pikas|first9=Christina K.|last10=Crick|first10=Tom|last11=Masuzzo|first11=Paola|year=2017|title=A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective on Emergent and Future Innovations in Peer Review|journal=F1000Research|volume=6|page=1151|doi=10.12688/f1000research.12037.3|pmc=5686505|pmid=29188015|last26=Madan|last23=Isaakidis|first23=Marios|last24=Irawan|first24=Dasapta Erwin|last25=Renaut|first25=Sébastien|first27=Lisa|first26=Christopher R.|last27=Matthias|last22=Poblet|last28=Nørgaard Kjær|first28=Jesper|last29=O'Donnell|first29=Daniel Paul|last30=Neylon|first30=Cameron|first22=Marta|first20=Josmel|first21=Nazeefa|last16=Mannheimer|last12=Caravaggi|first12=Anthony|last13=Berg|first13=Devin R.|first14=Kyle E.|last15=Ross-Hellauer|first15=Tony|first16=Sara|last21=Fatima|last17=Rigling|first17=Lillian|last18=Katz|first18=Daniel S.|last19=Greshake Tzovaras|first19=Bastian|last20=Pacheco-Mendoza|last14=Niemeyer |doi-access=free }} In the following we describe cases of the wider impact inappropriate peer review can have on public understanding of scientific literature.

Multiple examples across several areas of science find that scientists elevated the importance of peer review for research that was questionable or corrupted. For example, climate change deniers have published studies in the Energy and Environment journal, attempting to undermine the body of research that shows how human activity impacts the Earth's climate. Politicians in the United States who reject the established science of climate change have then cited this journal on several occasions in speeches and reports.{{cite web|url=http://www.realclimate.org/docs/thacker/skeptics.pdf|title=Skeptics get a journal}}, Paul Thacker, 2005.

At times, peer review has been exposed as a process that was orchestrated for a preconceived outcome. The New York Times gained access to confidential peer review documents for studies sponsored by the National Football League (NFL) that were cited as scientific evidence that brain injuries do not cause long-term harm to its players.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/25/sports/football/nfl-concussion-research-tobacco.html|title=N.F.L.'s Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Tobacco Industry|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 24, 2016|last1=Schwarz|first1=Alan|last2=Bogdanich|first2=Walt|last3=Williams|first3=Jacqueline}}. During the peer review process, the authors of the study stated that all NFL players were part of a study, a claim that the reporters found to be false by examining the database used for the research. Furthermore, The Times noted that the NFL sought to legitimize the studies" methods and conclusion by citing a "rigorous, confidential peer-review process" despite evidence that some peer reviewers seemed "desperate" to stop their publication. Recent research has also demonstrated that widespread industry funding for published medical research often goes undeclared and that such conflicts of interest are not appropriately addressed by peer review.{{cite journal|last1=Wong|first1=Victoria S. S.|last2=Avalos|first2=Lauro Nathaniel|last3=Callaham|first3=Michael L.|year=2019|title=Industry Payments to Physician Journal Editors|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=14|issue=2|page=e0211495|bibcode=2019PLoSO..1411495W|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0211495|pmc=6366761|pmid=30730904|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Weiss|first1=Glen J.|last2=Davis|first2=Roger B.|year=2019|title=Discordant Financial Conflicts of Interest Disclosures between Clinical Trial Conference Abstract and Subsequent Publication|journal=PeerJ|volume=7|page=e6423|doi=10.7717/peerj.6423|pmc=6375255|pmid=30775185 |doi-access=free }} Conflict of interest is less likely to be picked up in double-blinded reviews since the reviewer does not know the identity of the authors.{{cite journal |first=Suzanne |last=Jarvis |doi=10.1136/vr.j4362 |title=The perils of peer review |date=September 2017 |volume=181 |issue=12 |pages=303–304 |journal=Veterinary Record|s2cid=56853522 |doi-access=free }}

Another problem that peer review fails to catch is ghostwriting, a process by which companies draft articles for academics who then publish them in journals, sometimes with little or no changes.{{cite journal|last1=Flaherty|first1=D. K.|year=2013|title=Ghost- and Guest-Authored Pharmaceutical Industry–Sponsored Studies: Abuse of Academic Integrity, the Peer Review System, and Public Trust|journal=The Annals of Pharmacotherapy|volume=47|issue=7–8|pages=1081–1083|doi=10.1345/aph.1R691|pmid=23585648|s2cid=22513775}} These studies can then be used for political, regulatory and marketing purposes. In 2010, the US Senate Finance Committee released a report that found this practice was widespread, that it corrupted the scientific literature and increased prescription rates.{{cite web|url=https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/about/upload/Senator-Grassley-Report.pdf|title=Ghostwriting in medical literature|access-date=March 17, 2021|archive-date=February 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214041734/https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/about/upload/Senator-Grassley-Report.pdf|url-status=dead}}. Ghostwritten articles have appeared in dozens of journals, involving professors at several universities.{{cite web|url=https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2011/06/frequently-asked-questions-about-medical-ghostwriting/|title=Frequently asked questions about medical ghostwriting|date=June 28, 2011|access-date=March 17, 2021|archive-date=March 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210318162404/https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2011/06/frequently-asked-questions-about-medical-ghostwriting/|url-status=dead}}.

Just as experts in a particular field have a better understanding of the value of papers published in their area, scientists are considered to have better grasp of the value of published papers than the general public and to see peer review as a human process, with human failings,{{cite journal|last1=Vanholsbeeck|first1=Marc|last2=Thacker|first2=Paul|last3=Sattler|first3=Susanne|last4=Ross-Hellauer|first4=Tony|last5=Rivera-López|first5=Bárbara S.|last6=Rice|first6=Curt|last7=Nobes|first7=Andy|last8=Masuzzo|first8=Paola|last9=Martin|first9=Ryan|last10=Kramer|first10=Bianca|last11=Havemann|first11=Johanna|date=2019-03-11|title=Ten Hot Topics around Scholarly Publishing|journal=Publications|volume=7|issue=2|page=34|doi=10.3390/publications7020034|doi-access=free|first12=Asura|last12=Enkhbayar|first13=Jacinto|last13=Davila|first14=Tom|last14=Crick|first15=Harry|last15=Crane|first16=Jonathan P.|last16=Tennant}} and that "despite its limitations, we need it. It is all we have, and it is hard to imagine how we would get along without it".{{cite journal|title=Peer Review in Scientific Journals--What Good Is It?|journal=Western Journal of Medicine|year=1990|volume=153|issue=5|pages=520–522|pmid=2260288|last1=Relman|first1=A. S.|pmc=1002603}} But these subtleties are lost on the general public, who are often misled into thinking that being published in a journal with peer review is the "gold standard" and can erroneously equate published research with the truth. Thus, more care must be taken over how peer review, and the results of peer-reviewed research, are communicated to non-specialist audiences; particularly during a time in which a range of technical changes and a deeper appreciation of the complexities of peer review are emerging.{{cite journal|last1=Bravo|first1=Giangiacomo|last2=Grimaldo|first2=Francisco|last3=López-Iñesta|first3=Emilia|last4=Mehmani|first4=Bahar|last5=Squazzoni|first5=Flaminio|year=2019|title=The Effect of Publishing Peer Review Reports on Referee Behavior in Five Scholarly Journals|journal=Nature Communications|volume=10|issue=1|page=322|bibcode=2019NatCo..10..322B|doi=10.1038/s41467-018-08250-2|pmc=6338763|pmid=30659186}}{{cite journal|last1=Tennant|first1=Jonathan P.|year=2018|title=The State of the Art in Peer Review|journal=FEMS Microbiology Letters|volume=365|issue=19|doi=10.1093/femsle/fny204|pmc=6140953|pmid=30137294}}{{cite journal|last1=Squazzoni|first1=Flaminio|last2=Grimaldo|first2=Francisco|last3=Marušić|first3=Ana|year=2017|title=Publishing: Journals Could Share Peer-Review Data|journal=Nature|volume=546|issue=7658|page=352|bibcode=2017Natur.546Q.352S|doi=10.1038/546352a|pmid=28617464|s2cid=52858966|hdl=2434/626022|hdl-access=free}}{{citation |last1=Allen|first1=Heidi|last2=Boxer|first2=Emma|last3=Cury|first3=Alexandra|last4=Gaston|first4=Thomas|last5=Graf|first5=Chris|last6=Hogan|first6=Ben|last7=Loh|first7=Stephanie|last8=Wakley|first8=Hannah|last9=Willis|first9=Michael|year=2018|title=What Does Better Peer Review Look like? Definitions, Essential Areas, and Recommendations for Better Practice|doi=10.17605/OSF.IO/4MFK2}} This will be needed as the scholarly publishing system has to confront wider issues such as retractions{{cite journal|last1=Fang|first1=Ferric C.|last2=Casadevall|first2=Arturo|year=2011|title=Retracted Science and the Retraction Index|journal=Infection and Immunity|volume=79|issue=10|pages=3855–3859|doi=10.1128/IAI.05661-11|pmc=3187237|pmid=21825063}}{{cite journal|last1=Moylan|first1=Elizabeth C.|last2=Kowalczuk|first2=Maria K.|year=2016|title=Why Articles Are Retracted: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study of Retraction Notices at BioMed Central|journal=BMJ Open|volume=6|issue=11|page=e012047|doi=10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012047|pmc=5168538|pmid=27881524}} and replication or reproducibility "crises".{{cite journal|author1=Open Science Collaboration|year=2015|title=Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science|journal=Science|volume=349|issue=6251|page=aac4716|doi=10.1126/science.aac4716|pmid=26315443|hdl=10722/230596|s2cid=218065162|url=https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5257 |hdl-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Munafò|first1=Marcus R.|last2=Nosek|first2=Brian A.|last3=Bishop|first3=Dorothy V. M.|last4=Button|first4=Katherine S.|last5=Chambers|first5=Christopher D.|last6=Percie Du Sert|first6=Nathalie|last7=Simonsohn|first7=Uri|last8=Wagenmakers|first8=Eric-Jan|last9=Ware|first9=Jennifer J.|last10=Ioannidis|first10=John P. A.|year=2017|title=A Manifesto for Reproducible Science|url=http://dare.uva.nl/personal/pure/en/publications/a-manifesto-for-reproducible-science(3534b98f-a374-496b-9ad1-e61539477d66).html|journal=Nature Human Behaviour|volume=1|issue=1 |page=0021|doi=10.1038/s41562-016-0021|pmid=33954258|pmc=7610724|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Fanelli|first1=Daniele|year=2018|title=Opinion: Is Science Really Facing a Reproducibility Crisis, and Do We Need It To?|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=115|issue=11|pages=2628–2631|doi=10.1073/pnas.1708272114|pmc=5856498|pmid=29531051|doi-access=free}}

Peer review is often considered integral to scientific discourse in one form or another. Its gatekeeping role is supposed to be necessary to maintain the quality of the scientific literature{{cite journal|last1=Goodman|first1=Steven N.|year=1994|title=Manuscript Quality before and after Peer Review and Editing at Annals of Internal Medicine|journal=Annals of Internal Medicine|volume=121|issue=1|pages=11–21|doi=10.7326/0003-4819-121-1-199407010-00003|pmid=8198342|s2cid=5716602}}{{cite journal|last1=Pierson|first1=Charon A.|year=2018|title=Peer review and journal quality|journal=Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners|volume=30|issue=1|pages=1–2|doi=10.1097/JXX.0000000000000018|pmid=29757914|s2cid=46888329}} and avoid a risk of unreliable results, inability to separate signal from noise, and slow scientific progress.{{cite journal|last1=Caputo|first1=Richard K.|year=2019|title=Peer Review: A Vital Gatekeeping Function and Obligation of Professional Scholarly Practice|journal=Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services|volume=100|pages=6–16|doi=10.1177/1044389418808155|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Siler|first1=Kyle|last2=Lee|first2=Kirby|last3=Bero|first3=Lisa|year=2015|title=Measuring the effectiveness of scientific gatekeeping|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=112|issue=2|pages=360–365|bibcode=2015PNAS..112..360S|doi=10.1073/pnas.1418218112|pmc=4299220|pmid=25535380|doi-access=free}}

Shortcomings of peer review have been met with calls for even stronger filtering and more gatekeeping. A common argument in favor of such initiatives is the belief that this filter is needed to maintain the integrity of the scientific literature.{{cite journal|last1=Resnik|first1=David B.|last2=Elmore|first2=Susan A.|year=2016|title=Ensuring the Quality, Fairness, and Integrity of Journal Peer Review: A Possible Role of Editors|journal=Science and Engineering Ethics|volume=22|issue=1|pages=169–188|doi=10.1007/s11948-015-9625-5|pmid=25633924|s2cid=3641934}}{{cite journal|last1=Bornmann|first1=Lutz|year=2011|title=Scientific Peer Review|journal=Annual Review of Information Science and Technology|volume=45|pages=197–245|doi=10.1002/aris.2011.1440450112}}

Calls for more oversight have at least two implications that are counterintuitive of what is known to be true scholarship.

1. The belief that scholars are incapable of evaluating the quality of work on their own, that they are in need of a gatekeeper to inform them of what is good and what is not.
2. The belief that scholars need a "guardian" to make sure they are doing good work.

Others argue that authors most of all have a vested interest in the quality of a particular piece of work. Only the authors could have, as Feynman (1974){{cite web|url=http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm|title=Cargo cult science}}, Richard Feynman. puts it, the "extra type of integrity that is beyond not lying, but bending over backwards to show how you're maybe wrong, that you ought to have when acting as a scientist." If anything, the current peer review process and academic system could penalize, or at least fail to incentivize, such integrity.

Instead, the credibility conferred by the "peer-reviewed" label could diminish what Feynman calls the culture of doubt necessary for science to operate a self-correcting, truth-seeking process.{{cite journal|title= Cargo Cult Science|date=1974|url= http://Calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.HTM|journal = Caltech Magazine|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190824073117/http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.HTM |archive-date = 24 August 2019}} The effects of this can be seen in the ongoing replication crisis, hoaxes, and widespread outrage over the inefficacy of the current system. It's common to think that more oversight is the answer, as peer reviewers are not at all lacking in skepticism. But the issue is not the skepticism shared by the select few who determine whether an article passes through the filter. It is the validation, and accompanying lack of skepticism, that comes afterwards.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/upshot/peer-review-the-worst-way-to-judge-research-except-for-all-the-others.html |title=Peer Review: The Worst Way to Judge Research, Except for All the Others|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 5, 2018|last1=Carroll|first1=Aaron E.}}, Aaron E. Carroll, New York Times. Here again more oversight only adds to the impression that peer review ensures quality, thereby further diminishing the culture of doubt and counteracting the spirit of scientific inquiry.{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18224482-900-bucking-the-big-bang/ |title=Bucking the Big Bang}}, Eric Lerner, New Scientist.

Quality research{{snd}}even some of our most fundamental scientific discoveries{{snd}}dates back centuries, long before peer review took its current form.{{cite journal|title=Untangling Academic Publishing. A History of the Relationship between Commercial Interests, Academic Prestige and the Circulation of Research.|journal=26}} Whatever peer review existed centuries ago, it took a different form than it does in modern times, without the influence of large, commercial publishing companies or a pervasive culture of publish or perish. Though in its initial conception it was often a laborious and time-consuming task, researchers took peer review on nonetheless, not out of obligation but out of duty to uphold the integrity of their own scholarship. They managed to do so, for the most part, without the aid of centralised journals, editors, or any formalised or institutionalised process whatsoever. Supporters of modern technology argue that it makes it possible to communicate instantaneously with scholars around the globe, make such scholarly exchanges easier, and restore peer review to a purer scholarly form, as a discourse in which researchers engage with one another to better clarify, understand, and communicate their insights.{{cite journal|last1=Priem|first1=Jason|last2=Hemminger|first2=Bradley M.|year=2012|title=Decoupling the Scholarly Journal|journal=Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience|volume=6|page=19|doi=10.3389/fncom.2012.00019|pmc=3319915|pmid=22493574|doi-access=free}}

Such modern technology includes posting results to preprint servers, preregistration of studies, open peer review, and other open science practices.{{cite journal|last1=Bowman|first1=Nicholas David|last2=Keene|first2=Justin Robert|year=2018|title=A Layered Framework for Considering Open Science Practices|journal=Communication Research Reports|volume=35|issue=4|pages=363–372|doi=10.1080/08824096.2018.1513273|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=McKiernan|first1=E. C.|last2=Bourne|first2=P. E.|last3=Brown|first3=C. T.|last4=Buck|first4=S.|last5=Kenall|first5=A.|last6=Lin|first6=J.|last7=McDougall|first7=D.|last8=Nosek|first8=B. A.|last9=Ram|first9=K.|last10=Soderberg|first10=C. K.|last11=Spies|first11=J. R.|year=2016|title=Point of View: How Open Science Helps Researchers Succeed|journal=eLife|volume=5|doi=10.7554/eLife.16800|pmc=4973366|pmid=27387362|last12=Thaney|first12=K.|last13=Updegrove|first13=A.|last14=Woo|first14=K. H.|last15=Yarkoni|first15=T. |doi-access=free }} In all these initiatives, the role of gatekeeping remains prominent, as if a necessary feature of all scholarly communication, but critics argue that a proper, real-world implementation could test and disprove this assumption; demonstrate researchers' desire for more that traditional journals can offer; show that researchers can be entrusted to perform their own quality control independent of journal-coupled review. Jon Tennant also argues that the outcry over the inefficiencies of traditional journals centers on their inability to provide rigorous enough scrutiny, and the outsourcing of critical thinking to a concealed and poorly-understood process. Thus, the assumption that journals and peer review are required to protect scientific integrity seems to undermine the very foundations of scholarly inquiry.

To test the hypothesis that filtering is indeed unnecessary to quality control, many of the traditional publication practices would need to be redesigned, editorial boards repurposed if not disbanded, and authors granted control over the peer review of their own work. Putting authors in charge of their own peer review is seen as serving a dual purpose. On one hand, it removes the conferral of quality within the traditional system, thus eliminating the prestige associated with the simple act of publishing. Perhaps paradoxically, the removal of this barrier might actually result in an increase of the quality of published work, as it eliminates the cachet of publishing for its own sake. On the other hand, readers know that there is no filter so they must interpret anything they read with a healthy dose of skepticism, thereby naturally restoring the culture of doubt to scientific practice.{{Cite web|url=https://researchers.one/article/2018-09-17|title=In peer review we (don't) trust: How peer review's filtering poses a systemic risk to science|website=researchers.one}}{{cite journal|last1=Brembs|first1=Björn|year=2019|title=Reliable Novelty: New Should Not Trump True|journal=PLOS Biology|volume=17|issue=2|page=e3000117|doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000117|pmc=6372144|pmid=30753184 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal|last1=Stern|first1=Bodo M.|last2=o'Shea|first2=Erin K.|year=2019|title=A Proposal for the Future of Scientific Publishing in the Life Sciences|journal=PLOS Biology|volume=17|issue=2|page=e3000116|doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000116|pmc=6372143|pmid=30753179 |doi-access=free }}

In addition to concerns about the quality of work produced by well-meaning researchers, there are concerns that a truly open system would allow the literature to be populated with junk and propaganda by those with a vested interest in certain issues. A counterargument is that the conventional model of peer review diminishes the healthy skepticism that is a hallmark of scientific inquiry, and thus confers credibility upon subversive attempts to infiltrate the literature. Allowing such "junk" to be published could make individual articles less reliable but render the overall literature more robust by fostering a "culture of doubt".

The interposition of editors and reviewers between authors and readers may enable the intermediators to act as gatekeepers.{{cite journal|first=James V. |last=Bradley |year=1981 |title=Pernicious Publication Practices |journal=Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society |volume=18 |pages=31–34 |doi=10.3758/bf03333562|doi-access=free }} Some sociologists of science argue that peer review makes the ability to publish susceptible to control by elites and to personal jealousy."[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-08/cu-bse081204.php British scientists exclude 'maverick' colleagues, says report]" (2004) EurekAlert Public release date: August 16, 2004

The peer review process may sometimes impede progress and may be biased against novelty.{{cite journal |last1=Boudreau |first1=K. J. |last2=Guinan |first2=E.C. |last3=Lakhani |first3=K.R. |last4=Riedl |first4=C. |title=Looking Across and Looking Beyond the Knowledge Frontier: Intellectual Distance, Novelty, and Resource Allocation in Science | journal = Management Science | volume = 62 | issue = 10 | pages = 2765–2783 | date = October 2016 | pmid = 27746512 | doi = 10.1287/mnsc.2015.2285 | pmc = 5062254 }} A linguistic analysis of review reports suggests that reviewers focus on rejecting the applications by searching for weak points, and not on finding the high-risk/high-gain groundbreaking ideas that may be in the proposal.{{Cite journal|last1=van den Besselaar|first1=Peter|last2=Sandström|first2=Ulf|last3=Schiffbaenker|first3=Hélène|date=October 2018|title=Studying grant decision-making: a linguistic analysis of review reports|journal=Scientometrics|volume=117|issue=1|pages=313–329|doi=10.1007/s11192-018-2848-x|issn=0138-9130|pmc=6132964|pmid=30220747}} Reviewers tend to be especially critical of conclusions that contradict their own views,{{cite journal | vauthors = Osmond DH | title = Malice's wonderland: research funding and peer review | journal = Journal of Neurobiology | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | pages = 95–112 | date = March 1983 | pmid = 6842193 | doi = 10.1002/neu.480140202 | url = http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/peerrev1.htm | quote = ... they may strongly resist a rival's hypothesis that challenges their own | access-date = June 24, 2015 | archive-date = March 18, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090318124559/http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/peerrev1.htm | url-status = dead }}{{cite journal | first1=Francisco |last1=Grimaldo |first2=Mario |last2=Paolucci |title=A simulation of disagreement for control of rational cheating in peer review |journal=Advances in Complex Systems |date=14 March 2013 |bibcode= 2005AdCS....8...15L |doi=10.1142/S0219525913500045 |volume=16 |issue=7 |page=1350004|s2cid=2590479 }} and lenient towards those that match them. At the same time, established scientists are more likely than others to be sought out as referees, particularly by high-prestige journals/publishers. As a result, ideas that harmonize with the established experts' are more likely to see print and to appear in premier journals than are iconoclastic or revolutionary ones. This accords with Thomas Kuhn's well-known observations regarding scientific revolutions.{{cite news |first1=Sophie |last1=Petit-Zeman |url=https://www.theguardian.com/print/0,3858,4583809-111019,00.html |title=Trial by peers comes up short |newspaper=The Guardian |date=January 16, 2003}} A theoretical model has been established whose simulations imply that peer review and over-competitive research funding foster mainstream opinion to monopoly.{{cite journal |first=H. |last=Fang |title=Peer review and over-competitive research funding fostering mainstream opinion to monopoly |journal=Scientometrics |volume=87|number=2 |pages=293–301 |year=2011 |doi=10.1007/s11192-010-0323-4|s2cid=24236419 }}

Criticisms of traditional anonymous peer review allege that it lacks accountability, can lead to abuse by reviewers, and may be biased and inconsistent.{{cite journal |doi=10.1087/095315102760319206 |title=The peer-review process |journal=Learned Publishing |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=247–258 |year=2002 |last1=Rowland |first1=Fytton |s2cid=18368797 |doi-access=free }}

There have also been suggestions of gender bias in peer review, with male authors being likely to receive more favorable treatment.{{cite journal |last1=Budden |first1=A. E. |last2=Tregenza |first2=T. |last3=Aarssen |first3=L. W. |last4=Koricheva |first4=J. |last5=Leimu |first5=R. |last6=Lortie |first6=C. J. |title=Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors | journal = Trends in Ecology & Evolution | volume = 23 | issue = 1 | pages = 4–6 | date = January 2008 | pmid = 17963996 | doi = 10.1016/j.tree.2007.07.008 |bibcode=2008TEcoE..23....4B }} However, a 2021 study found no evidence for such bias (and found that in some respects female authors were treated more favourably).{{Cite journal|last1=Squazzoni |first1=Flaminio|last2=Bravo|first2=Giangiacomo|last3=Farjam|first3=Mike|last4=Marusic|first4=Ana|last5=Mehmani|first5=Bahar|last6=Willis|first6=Michael|last7=Birukou|first7=Aliaksandr|last8=Dondio|first8=Pierpaolo|last9=Grimaldo|first9=Francisco|date=2021-01-06|title=Peer review and gender bias: A study on 145 scholarly journals|journal=Science Advances|volume=7|issue=2|page=eabd0299|doi=10.1126/sciadv.abd0299|issn=2375-2548|pmc=7787493|pmid=33523967|bibcode=2021SciA....7..299S}}{{Cite web|last=Akst|first=Jef|date=2020-01-06|title=No Gender Bias in Peer Review: Study|url=https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/no-gender-bias-in-peer-review-study-68320|access-date=2021-02-06|website=The Scientist |language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Yirka|first=Bob|date=2020-01-07|title=Analysis: Peer review process unlikely to be primary cause of gender publishing inequalities in scholarly journals|url=https://phys.org/news/2021-01-analysis-peer-primary-gender-publishing.html|access-date=2021-02-06|website=phys.org|language=en}}

Most academic publishers do not financially compensate reviewers for their participation in the peer-review process, which has been criticized by the academic community.{{Cite journal |last=Brainard |first=Jeffrey |title=The $450 question: Should journals pay peer reviewers? |date=1 March 2021 |journal=Science |doi=10.1126/science.abh3175 |doi-access=free}} Whereas some publishers have contended that it is economically not feasible to pay reviewers, some journals have started to pay reviewers through platforms such as Research Square when they are unable to receive free reviews. Other publishers such as Advances.in have made paying reviewers an inherent part of their business model.{{Cite web |date=October 9, 2022 |title=Advances.in |url=http://advances.in}}

Some critics of open access (OA) journals have argued that, compared to traditional subscription journals, open access journals might utilize substandard or less formal peer review practices, and, as a consequence, the quality of scientific work in such journals will suffer.{{cite web|last1=Suber|first1=Peter|date=September 2, 2007|title=Will open access undermine peer review?|url=https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4322578/suber_peer.html|work=SPARC Open Access Newsletter|issue=113}}{{unreliable source?|date=November 2018}} In a study published in 2012, this hypothesis was tested by evaluating the relative "impact" (using citation counts) of articles published in open access and subscription journals, on the grounds that members of the scientific community would presumably be less likely to cite substandard work, and that citation counts could therefore act as one indicator of whether or not the journal format indeed impacted peer review and the quality of published scholarship.{{cite journal|last1=Björk|first1=Bo-Christer|last2=Solomon|first2=David|year=2012|title=Open access versus subscription journals: A comparison of scientific impact|journal=BMC Medicine|volume=10|page=73|doi=10.1186/1741-7015-10-73|pmc=3398850|pmid=22805105 |doi-access=free }} This study ultimately concluded that "OA journals indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus are approaching the same scientific impact and quality as subscription journals, particularly in biomedicine and for journals funded by article processing charges," and the authors consequently argue that "there is no reason for authors not to choose to publish in OA journals just because of the 'OA' label.

Peer review fails when a peer-reviewed article contains fundamental errors that undermine at least one of its main conclusions and that could have been identified by more careful reviewers. Many journals have no procedure to deal with peer review failures beyond publishing letters to the editor.{{cite web |title=Reviewing the "Letter-to-editor" section in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2000–2004 |author=Afifi, M |publisher=Bulletin of the World Health Organization |url=https://www.who.int/bulletin/bulletin_board/84/letters/en/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060806092353/http://www.who.int/bulletin/bulletin_board/84/letters/en/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 6, 2006}} Peer review in scientific journals assumes that the article reviewed has been honestly prepared. The process occasionally detects fraud, but is not designed to do so.{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature05007 |title=Increasing accountability |journal=Nature |year=2006 |last1=Lee |first1=Kirby |doi-broken-date=November 2, 2024 }} When peer review fails and a paper is published with fraudulent or otherwise irreproducible data, the paper may be retracted. A 1998 experiment on peer review with a fictitious manuscript found that peer reviewers failed to detect some manuscript errors and the majority of reviewers may not notice that the conclusions of the paper are unsupported by its results.{{cite journal |last1=Baxt |first1=W. G. |last2=Waeckerle |first2=J. F. |last3=Berlin |first3=J. A. |last4=Callaham |first4=M. L. |title=Who reviews the reviewers? Feasibility of using a fictitious manuscript to evaluate peer reviewer performance | journal = Annals of Emergency Medicine | volume = 32 | issue = 3 Pt 1 | pages = 310–317 | date = September 1998 | pmid = 9737492 | doi = 10.1016/S0196-0644(98)70006-X |doi-access=free }}

There have been instances where peer review was claimed to be performed but in fact was not; this has been documented in some predatory open access journals (e.g., the Who's Afraid of Peer Review? affair) or in the case of sponsored Elsevier journals.[https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/107-cancer-papers-retracted-due-to-peer-review-fraud/ A case of peer review fraud] in Tumor Biology papers (Retrieved April 25, 2017)

In November 2014, an article in Nature exposed that some academics were submitting fake contact details for recommended reviewers to journals, so that if the publisher contacted the recommended reviewer, they were the original author reviewing their own work under a fake name.{{cite journal |last1=Ferguson |first1=C. |last2=Marcus |first2=A. |last3=Oransky |first3=I. |title=Publishing: The peer-review scam |journal=Nature | volume = 515 | issue = 7528 | pages = 480–482 | date = November 2014 | pmid = 25428481 | doi = 10.1038/515480a | bibcode = 2014Natur.515..480F |s2cid=4447250 |doi-access=free }} The Committee on Publication Ethics issued a statement warning of the fraudulent practice.{{cite web|url=http://publicationethics.org/news/cope-statement-inappropriate-manipulation-peer-review-processes|title=COPE statement on inappropriate manipulation of peer review processes|work=publicationethics.org|date=December 19, 2014 }} In March 2015, BioMed Central retracted 43 articles{{cite news|url=http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2015/03/26/manipulation-peer-review/|title=Inappropriate manipulation of peer review|work=BioMed Central blog|date=2015-03-26}} and Springer retracted 64 papers in 10 journals in August 2015.{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature.2015.18202 |title=Faked peer reviews prompt 64 retractions |journal=Nature |year=2015 |last1=Callaway |first1=Ewen |s2cid=182578881 }} Tumor Biology journal is another example of peer review fraud.

In 2020, the Journal of Nanoparticle Research fell victim to an "organized rogue editor network", who impersonated respected academics, got a themed issue created, and got 19 substandard articles published (out of 80 submitted). The journal was praised for dealing with the scam openly and transparently.

Reviewers generally lack access to raw data, but do see the full text of the manuscript, and are typically familiar with recent publications in the area. Thus, they are in a better position to detect plagiarism of prose than fraudulent data. A few cases of such textual plagiarism by historians, for instance, have been widely publicized.{{cite web |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1081 |website=History News Network |title=Historians on the Hot Seat |date=April 23, 2010 }}

On the scientific side, a poll of 3,247 scientists funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health found 0.3% admitted faking data and 1.4% admitted plagiarism.{{cite news |last1=Weiss |first1=Rick |date=June 9, 2005 |title=Many scientists admit to misconduct: Degrees of deception vary in poll |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/08/AR2005060802385.html }} Additionally, 4.7% of the same poll admitted to self-plagiarism or autoplagiarism, in which an author republishes the same material, data, or text, without citing their earlier work.{{clarify|reason=no direct connection to peer review in this info|date=January 2016}} Self-plagiarisms are less likely to be detected in double-blinded peer reviews.

{{further|SCIgen}}

• "Perhaps the most widely recognized failure of peer review is its inability to ensure the identification of high-quality work. The list of important scientific papers that were rejected by some peer-reviewed journals goes back at least as far as the editor of Philosophical Transaction's 1796 rejection of Edward Jenner's report of the first vaccination against smallpox."{{cite book |last1=Michaels |first1=David |chapter=Politicizing Peer Review: Scientific Perspective | editor1-last=Wagner |editor1-first=Wendy |editor2-first=Rena |editor2-last=Steinzor |title=Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific Research |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |page=224 |isbn=978-0-521-85520-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZ1axrolCpkC&pg=PA224}}
• The Soon and Baliunas controversy involved the publication in 2003 of a review study written by aerospace engineer Willie Soon and astronomer Sallie Baliunas in the journal Climate Research,{{cite journal |doi=10.3354/cr023089 |title=Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past 1000 years |journal=Climate Research |volume=23 |pages=89–110 |year=2003 |last1=Soon |first1=W. |last2=Baliunas |first2=S. |bibcode=2003ClRes..23...89S |doi-access=free }} which was quickly taken up by the G.W. Bush administration as a basis for amending the first Environmental Protection Agency Report on the Environment. The paper was strongly criticized by numerous scientists for its methodology and for its misuse of data from previously published studies, prompting concerns about the peer review process of the paper. The controversy resulted in the resignation of several editors of the journal and the admission by its publisher Otto Kinne that the paper should not have been published as it was.
• The trapezoidal rule, in which the method of Riemann sums for numerical integration was republished in a Diabetes research journal, Diabetes Care.{{cite journal | vauthors = Tai MM | title = A mathematical model for the determination of total area under glucose tolerance and other metabolic curves | journal = Diabetes Care | volume = 17 | issue = 2 | pages = 152–154 | date = February 1994 | pmid = 8137688 | doi = 10.2337/diacare.17.2.152 | s2cid = 42761923 }} The method is almost always taught in high school calculus, and was thus considered an example of an extremely well known idea being re-branded as a new discovery.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/11/10/apparently-calculus-was-invented-in-1994/ |title=Apparently, Calculus Was Invented In 1994 |first=Alex |last=Knapp |year=2011 |magazine=Forbes}}
• A conference organized by the Wessex Institute of Technology was the target of an exposé by three researchers who wrote nonsensical papers (including one that was composed of random phrases). They reported that the papers were "reviewed and provisionally accepted" and concluded that the conference was an attempt to "sell" publication possibilities to less experienced or naive researchers.{{cite web |url=http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/~wp/videa.html |title=Beware of VIDEA! |last=Purgathofer |first=Werner |website=tuwien.ac.at |publisher=Technical University of Vienna |access-date=April 29, 2014}} This may however be better described as a lack of any actual peer review, rather than peer review having failed.
• In the humanities, one of the most infamous cases of plagiarism undetected by peer review involved Martin Stone, formerly professor of medieval and Renaissance philosophy at the Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte of the KU Leuven. Martin Stone managed to publish at least forty articles and book chapters that were almost entirely stolen from the work of others. Most of these publications appeared in highly rated peer-reviewed journals and book series.{{cite journal | last1 = Dougherty |first1=M. V. |last2=Harsting |first2=P. |last3=Friedman|first3=R. |year=2009 |title=40 Cases of Plagiarism |journal=Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale|volume=51 |pages=350–391 |url=http://www.nnrh.dk/NNRH-hp/40.Cases.of.Plagiarism.pdf }}{{cite journal | last1 = Dougherty | first1 = M. V. | year = 2017 | title = Correcting the Scholarly Record in the Aftermath of Plagiarism: A Snapshot of Current-Day Publishing Practices in Philosophy | journal = Metaphilosophy | volume = 48 | issue = 3| pages = 258–283 | doi=10.1111/meta.12241 }}
• The controversial Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, which evolved directly from pseudoscience and now forms the basis for the pseudoarchaeology of Graham Hancock's Ancient Apocalypse, was first published in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS using a nonstandard review system, according to a comprehensive refutation by Holliday et al. (2023).{{Cite journal |last1=Holliday |first1=Vance T. |last2=Daulton |first2=Tyrone L. |last3=Bartlein |first3=Patrick J. |last4=Boslough |first4=Mark B. |last5=Breslawski |first5=Ryan P. |last6=Fisher |first6=Abigail E. |last7=Jorgeson |first7=Ian A. |last8=Scott |first8=Andrew C. |last9=Koeberl |first9=Christian |last10=Marlon |first10=Jennifer |last11=Severinghaus |first11=Jeffrey |last12=Petaev |first12=Michail I. |last13=Claeys |first13=Philippe |date=2023-07-26 |title=Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |volume=247 |language=en |pages=104502 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104502|doi-access=free |bibcode=2023ESRv..24704502H }} According to this 2023 review, "Claiming evidence where none exists and providing misleading citations may be accidental, but when conducted repeatedly, it becomes negligent and undermines scientific advancement as well as the credibility of science itself. Also culpable is the failure of the peer review process to prevent such errors of fact from entering the literature. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 'contributed review' system for National Academy members...is at least partially responsible. The 'pal reviews' (as some refer to them) were significantly curtailed in 2010, in part due to the YDIH controversy."

Other attempts to reform the peer review process originate among others from the fields of metascience and journalology. Reformers seek to increase the reliability and efficiency of the peer review process and to provide it with a scientific foundation.{{cite journal |last1=Rennie |first1=Drummond |title=Let's make peer review scientific |journal=Nature |date=7 July 2016 |volume=535 |issue=7610 |pages=31–33 |doi=10.1038/535031a |pmid=27383970 |bibcode=2016Natur.535...31R |s2cid=4408375 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal|last=Slavov|first=Nikolai|date=2015-11-11|title=Making the most of peer review|journal=eLife|volume=4|page=e12708|doi=10.7554/eLife.12708|pmid=26559758|pmc=4641509|issn=2050-084X |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Couzin-Frankel |first1=Jennifer |title='Journalologists' use scientific methods to study academic publishing. Is their work improving science? |journal=Science |date=18 September 2018 |doi=10.1126/science.aav4758|doi-access=free}} Alternatives to common peer review practices have been put to the test,{{Cite journal|last1=Cosgrove|first1=Andrew|last2=Cheifet|first2=Barbara|date=2018-11-27|title=Transparent peer review trial: the results|journal=Genome Biology|volume=19|issue=1|page=206|doi=10.1186/s13059-018-1584-0|issn=1474-760X|pmc=6260718|pmid=30482224 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal|last1=Patterson|first1=Mark|last2=Schekman|first2=Randy|date=2018-06-26|title=A new twist on peer review|journal=eLife|volume=7|page=e36545|doi=10.7554/eLife.36545|pmid=29944117|pmc=6019064|issn=2050-084X |doi-access=free }} in particular open peer review, where the comments are visible to readers, generally with the identities of the peer reviewers disclosed as well, e.g., F1000, eLife, BMJ, and BioMed Central.{{cite journal |last=Ross-Hellauer |first=Tony |title=What is open peer review? A systematic review |journal=F1000Research |volume=6 |date=2017-08-31 |issn=2046-1402 |doi=10.12688/f1000research.11369.2 |page=588|pmid=28580134 |pmc=5437951 |doi-access=free }} In the case of eLife, peer review is used not for deciding whether to publish an article, but for assessing its importance and reliability. Likewise, the recognition and recruitment of peer reviewers continues to be a significant issue in the field of scholarly publishing.{{Cite web |last1=Dyke|first1=Gareth|date=2023 |title=Interview with Dr. Neeraj Kumar Sethiya, the newest ReviewerCredits ambassador |url=https://www.reviewercredits.com/interview-with-dr-neeraj-kumar-sethiya-the-newest-reviewercredits-ambassador/}}

In 2017, the Higher School of Economics in Moscow unveiled a "Monument to an Anonymous Peer Reviewer". It takes the form of a large concrete cube, or dice, with "Accept", "Minor Changes", "Major Changes", "Revise and Resubmit" and "Reject" on its five visible sides. Sociologist Igor Chirikov, who devised the monument, said that while researchers have a love-hate relationship with peer review, peer reviewers nonetheless do valuable but mostly invisible work, and the monument is a tribute to them.{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature.2017.22060 |title=Monument to peer review unveiled in Moscow |journal=Nature |year=2017 |last1=Schiermeier |first1=Quirin }}

{{columns-list|colwidth=18em|

• Academic authorship
• Academic bias
• Academic journal
• Abstract management
• Conference proceedings
• Coercive citation
• Interdisciplinary peer review
• Journal club
• Publication bias
• Reporting bias
• Scholarly method
• Sternberg peer review controversy
• Statcheck

}}

{{Reflist|32em|refs=

{{cite web | title=Imposters hijack journal's peer review process to publish substandard papers | website=Chemistry World | date=2021-01-18 | url=https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/imposters-hijack-journals-peer-review-process-to-publish-substandard-papers/4013050.article | access-date=2021-01-19}}

{{cite journal | last1=Pinna | first1=Nicola | last2=Clavel | first2=Guylhaine | last3=Roco | first3=Mihail C. | title=The Journal of Nanoparticle Research victim of an organized rogue editor network! | journal=Journal of Nanoparticle Research | volume=22 | issue=12 | year=2020 | issn=1388-0764 | doi=10.1007/s11051-020-05094-0 | page=376| bibcode=2020JNR....22..376P | s2cid=229182904 | doi-access=free }}

{{cite journal | last=Else | first=Holly | title=eLife won't reject papers once they are under review — what researchers think | journal=Nature | date=2022-11-03 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/d41586-022-03534-6 | page=| pmid=36329143 | s2cid=253302170 }}

}}

• {{cite journal |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/ |title=Peer review debate |journal=Nature |date=June 2006}}
• {{cite journal |pmc=5686505 |year=2017 |last1=Tennant |first1=J. P. |last2=Dugan |first2=J. M. |last3=Graziotin |first3=D. |last4=Jacques |first4=D. C. |last5=Waldner |first5=F. |last6=Mietchen |first6=D. |last7=Elkhatib |first7=Y. |last8=b. Collister |first8=L. |last9=Pikas |first9=C. K. |last10=Crick |first10=T. |last11=Masuzzo |first11=P. |last12=Caravaggi |first12=A. |last13=Berg |first13=D. R. |last14=Niemeyer |first14=K. E. |last15=Ross-Hellauer |first15=T. |last16=Mannheimer |first16=S. |last17=Rigling |first17=L. |last18=Katz |first18=D. S. |last19=Greshake Tzovaras |first19=B. |last20=Pacheco-Mendoza |first20=J. |last21=Fatima |first21=N. |last22=Poblet |first22=M. |last23=Isaakidis |first23=M. |last24=Irawan |first24=D. E. |last25=Renaut |first25=S. |last26=Madan |first26=C. R. |last27=Matthias |first27=L. |last28=Nørgaard Kjær |first28=J. |last29=O'Donnell |first29=D. P. |last30=Neylon |first30=C. |title=A multi-disciplinary perspective on emergent and future innovations in peer review |journal=F1000Research |volume=6 |page=1151 |doi=10.12688/f1000research.12037.3 |pmid=29188015 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite book | last=Fitzpatrick | first=Kathleen | title=Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy | publisher=New York University Press | title-link=Planned Obsolescence (book) |location=New York | year=2011 | isbn=978-0-8147-2788-1 | oclc=759000874}}
• {{cite book |last=Paltridge |first=Brian |year=2017 |title=The Discourse of Peer Review: reviewing submissions to academic journals |location=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-48736-0 |isbn=978-1-137-48735-3 }}
• {{cite journal |first=Sam |last=Rose |title=Peer review in art history |journal=Burlington Magazine |volume=161 |issue=1397 |date=August 2019 |pages=621–625 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peer Review}}

Category:Academic publishing

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Category:Criticism of academia

Category:Metascience