Peer Review — What exactly does it mean?
Aug 18, 2008 Discussion
There has been significant debate recently as to the exact definition of “peer review”. Depending upon who you ask, you will likely get very different opinions. A commonly accepted definition involves the anonymous review by two selected reviewers with expertise in the area, and then a final decision by the editor in charge.
However, with the dawn of the OA movement, it is necessary to open up the discussion again. Several OA publishers focus on technical scientific soundness as opposed to perceived importance. As many peer review methods focus on weeding out the “unimportant” papers, new methods were developed. Unfortunately, some OA publishers take advantage of the movement (as discussed in Publishers Tarnishing OA), and quality control is critical in order to maintain the good image of the entire OA movement.
In other words, while we must understand that one strict definition is insufficient given the broad spectrum of journal focuses, it is also critical that rigorous scientific standards are upheld. Without these standards, OA could devolve into a pseudoscientific profit-making venture for unethical publishers.
Nathan
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