Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 10:06:58 +0530
From: Subbiah Arunachalam
Friends:
I received it by email from a friend and editor of a medical library
journal. I thought many of you would find it useful. Best wishes.
Arun
Those of you who are interested in looking into the peer review process
further may be interested in the following:
The indispensible starting point for serious study of peer review is Ann
C. Weller's "Editorial Peer Review: Its Strengths and Weaknesses" (ASIST,
2001). This is a systematic review of over 1,100 studies of the peer
review process and includes chapters on Editors and Editorial Boards, Role
of Reviewers, Reviewers and their Biases, and Peer Review in an Electronic
Environment, among other topics.
In 1986, JAMA sponsored the first International Congress on Peer Review in
Biomedical Publication. The proceedings of the 4th Congress, which was
held in Barcelona in September 2001, are published as a special theme
issue of JAMA, June 5, 2002, volume 297, number 21.
In 2000/2001, the journal Academic Medicine underwent a thorough study of
their own peer review process. The results of that study, which includes
very useful information on the peer review process at other publications,
is presented in Academic Medicine, September 2001, volume 76, number 9.
And finally, Ann Weller recently brought to my attention a new publication
from BMJ Books, "How to survive peer review" by Elizabeth Wager, Fiona
Godlee and Tom Jefferson (BMJ Books, 2002). I haven't seen it yet, but it
comes highly recommended.
T. Scott Plutchak
Director, Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham
tscott@uab.edu
